Cosmic Hearts
by caitlinkeitorin
Summary: I thought about the old nursery rhyme, "Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight."... But wishing on stars is only for fairy tales. And believe me, this is no fairy tale.
1. Chapter One

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter One

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

"Luna, wake up…Luna!"

I could faintly hear someone calling my name, but seeing as I was warm and comfortable in my bed, I didn't really care.

"Luna!"

Again I heard my name, so this time I shifted a little to let whoever it was calling me know I was awake.

"Okay, good. Now get up and come downstairs. Breakfast is ready."

Now a little more awake, I recognized the voice to be my brother, Ciro.

As much as I didn't want to, I obediently got out of bed and started for the closet to find something to wear.

Pulling open the white folding doors, I reached for the first thing I saw. It didn't much matter to me what it was. I was too tired to really care what I looked like right then.

Yawning, I took off the blue, flannel nightgown I had been wearing, threw it onto my messy bed, and changed.

When I was finished, I looked into the mirror that was standing in the corner of my room.

I was now wearing a white halter top with thin straps that criss-crossed and tied around my neck. Sewn along the top were pink, blue, and purple gems. With it came a matching mini skirt that was also white. It had the same gems, but were along the right side of it, going up.

This was all I was willing to wear today. It was just going to be another uneventful day in Galaxy.

Galaxy was the village I lived in. I'd been there my whole life, and was probably going to be there for the rest of it.

It was a quiet and peaceful village, surrounded by trees, but I liked it. There was a lake out behind our house. It was beautiful, so I went there sometimes to relax.

I walked over to my vanity dresser on the other side of the room, sat down, and brushed my hair.

It was white. My hair, that is. Long, straight, white hair. It took a few minutes to brush, and when I was done, I tied it into a ponytail that hung down to my waist.

Now completely dressed, I strolled over to my room's only window, and looked out, resting my head in my hands, and my arms on the sill.

My room overlooked the lake I loved so much.

I probably could have fallen asleep again, just standing there. But...

"Luna! Are you ready yet?"

But Ciro was calling me, and I needed to go. So I pulled myself away from the view, and headed downstairs.

* * *

"Morning, brother," I said to Ciro when I walked into the kitchen. He was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, orange pants, and white shoes, and had his short, black hair scruffed up as usual. He was staring at me like I was crazy.

"Morning? It's twelve o' clock."

"So? I just woke up. It's still morning to me."

"Whatever. Just sit down and eat."

Over on the table was a plate of pancakes.

"Ooh, yummy. What's the occasion?"

"Does there have to be an occasion for me to make pancakes?

"Um, yeah, sort of. You never make pancakes."

"Well I made them today, so be grateful."

"Yes sir!"

We both laughed. I liked hearing him laugh. It reminded me of before. Before our parents died, when we were all together as a family. He used to laugh all the time, and now...I don't know. We were both pretty young when it happened. He was five, and I was three; it's been twelve years now. I guess he just never really got over it. But I try to make him laugh whenever I can. I think it makes us both feel better.

I sat down at the table, and ate the pancakes that had been set out for me. They tasted really good- I wished he'd make them more often.

About ten minutes later, after finishing off the last bite, I stood up and took the empty plate to the sink.

I turned around and leaned against the counter, thinking about what I was going to do today. It was really nice outside, so I could go down to the lake for a bit. Or I could stay here and try to clean up some of the various messes that had been made...

Lake it was.

"Ciro! I'm going out for a while, okay?" He wasn't in the kitchen anymore, so I had to shout.

But there was no reply.

"Ciro?" I called again, raising my voice a little louder. "Where are you?"

He still didn't answer.

Curious, I walked into the living room to see if I could find him.

And there he was, standing behind the couch, holding a sword; the kind you would see a samurai carrying.

I wasn't sure which question I wanted to ask more: why he wouldn't answer me, or where he had gotten that thing.

"Luna, hush. I thought I saw someone outside."

I gave him a confused look. "It's nice out today. I'm sure there are people walking around."

He just shook his head. "He doesn't live here."

"So you pull out a sword? Where did you even get that?"

"He was wandering around our house. I got a bad feeling about him."

"So? What are you going to do? Stab him? Ciro, you're be-"

But there was a crash that came from behind me. A crash so loud, it nearly made me jump out of my skin.

"Luna, get behind me!"

I heard what he said, but I couldn't get my legs to move. By that time, I had already turned around to see what had just happened. There was a man standing where the front door _had_ been. The door was now laying flat on the floor a few feet away from its original placeholder. The man still had his foot in the air from where he had apparently kicked it.

"Wh- who are you?" I said in a voice so tiny, it surprised even me.

The man was dressed in all black. Black shirt, pants, shoes, and a bandana, which was tied around his face, covering his mouth. He even had black eyes and hair. And he was staring right at me.

"Heh. I'm not surprised you don't remember me. But come now Ciro, surely you recognize me."

Wait, he knew Ciro? How? Well, if he did, he sure didn't show it. He said nothing back to this strange burglar.

"No? Then maybe I should give you a hint." His eyes suddenly narrowed and, even with the bandana on, I could tell his face hardened. "That's my sword."

At least that answered one of my questions.

I turned back around to see Ciro's reaction. In a matter of seconds, his face turned from confusion, to shock, to pure hatred.

"You," he hissed.

"Aha! I knew you couldn't have forgotten me so soon. How's life been for ya?" His tone turned sarcastic.

"Shut up!"

"Aw, now that's not nice. Certainly no way to treat a guest."

"You're no guest here. Get out."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I've come to pick up a package."

"What?"

"The same thing we wanted the first time," he said, slightly more serious.

I had just been standing there this whole time, watching the scene play out. It didn't even seem real. Who was this guy? When did he and Ciro meet? Why was he here? What was I missing?

I only realized that I had zoned out when Ciro ran past me quickly enough to cause my hair to sway. It caught me off guard, and I stumbled backwards a little.

The next thing I processed was the sound of metal against metal. The two had started fighting, each with his own sword. They were both dodging and reflecting each other's attacks.

When had Ciro learned to fight? Just another question to add to the list.

At last a moment came when they backed off each other. This gave the mysterious man an opportunity to comment.

"Well, well, look who learned to fight. But I don't have time for this."

And with that, he swung at Ciro so hard, it would've caused some serious damage, had it hit him.

But it didn't. Ciro evaded this attack and countered with his own. The flat of his sword hit the man hard on the back and caused him to fall.

He didn't waste any time to grab my arm and pull me upstairs. I was still a little dazed, and too confused to do anything about it.

He dragged me into his room, shut the door, and locked it.

Then he ran to his dresser, throwing his sword aside, and started opening drawers, pulling everything out of them, closing it, and moving on to the next one. Was he looking for something?

"What are you doing?" I said for the first time in a while.

He didn't answer, just continued his frantic search.

"Ciro, answer me!"

"Where did I put it?" he said, more to himself.

"Where did you put what?" I tried again.

He opened the bottom drawer, reached in the back, and said, "Yes!"

"What?" These last few minutes had been so crazy, and nobody would tell me anything. I was becoming aggravated.

Then he strode back over to me, and took me by the shoulders. Whatever he was holding was now pressing against my skin. We both just stood there for a moment, not saying anything. I tried to read his fiery colored eyes. He looked sad, and angry, but most of all, torn, like he didn't know what he should do. Or if he did, whether it was the right decision.

There was so much I wanted to ask, but I felt like I should give him some time to think things through.

Then he said, "You're not safe here anymore."

I just stared at him. What else was I supposed to do? The only thing I could get out of my mouth was, "Wha?"

He took in a deep breath, let it out, and hung his head. "Look, Luna, there's a lot I haven't told you, and I probably should have, so I'm sorry," He looked back up into my magenta eyes, "But right now, I need to get you somewhere safe."

Then he finally let go of me and opened his hand so that I could see what it was that he was so desperately searching for.

It was a little, black, star-shaped pendant attached to a thin piece of string. A necklace. A necklace? How was a necklace going to help us right now?

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's a Starlite. It should have the power to get you out of here."

"And take me where?"

"Where ever it thinks you'll be safe."

"But why I am I in danger? What's going on, Ciro?"

Just then there was a loud crack.

I whipped my head around towards the door. Part of it was broken in- like it had been hit with an axe or something. Then I remembered that there was someone on the other side of that door who was trying to hurt me. I let out a short gasp. Those words had finally sunk in.

I tore myself out of my thoughts and looked back at Ciro. "So, how does it work?"

"It has a special energy. Focus on that energy and you'll be able to connect with it."

He placed the Starlite over my head and around my neck. I pulled my hair out from underneath it, then proceeded to pick it up. It felt strange. Warm, but not to the touch. Maybe that was the energy he was talking about.

"Do you have another one?" I asked.

"No," he shook his head slowly, "This is the only one in existence."

My eyes widened. "But then how are you-"

"I'm not."

"What? Then what are you going to do?"

Tears were starting to well up in my eyes. He couldn't leave me alone at a time like this. He just _couldn't_.

"I'm going to stay and fight. But you need to go, now."

"No!"

"Luna, please! You're my little sister and I'm not going to let anything happen to you!"

The tears started to run down my face. I knew he was just trying to protect me, but-

Another crack, louder this time. I looked back at the door and saw that it had been hit again. The hole that had been in it before was larger now.

I was going to have to trust him on this, wasn't I?

I closed my eyes in attempt to stop crying. It didn't work. So I faced him. He look scared, something I didn't think I'd ever seen before. That scared me. Everything right now scared me...

But I needed to do this. So, mustering all the courage I had, I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tight. Who knew when I'd be able to see him again? If I'd ever see him again.

This brought on more tears.

He hugged me back for a quick second, then let go and asked, "Are you ready?"

I slowly nodded my head. "I think so."

"Okay. Now, can you feel the energy radiating from it?"

I picked the star back up. The same warm sensation flooded my fingertips. "Yes."

"Good. Concentrate on it. Let the energy fill your body."

I closed my eyes and squeezed the little pendant. I concentrated on the warmth. And slowly, it began to spread from my hand, up my arm, and through the rest of me.

When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I noticed was the light on my skin. My arms were glowing. Everything was glowing. This came as shock until I discovered that my feet weren't touching the ground. I was floating a few inches above it. That's when I starting freaking out. "Ciro! What's happening?"

"It's okay! Don't be scared! Keep your focus!"

I felt weightless.

Well, that wasn't technically true. I felt like I weighed as much as that little necklace did. The Starlite.

The loud cracking sound at the door came again, but I didn't bother to look this time.

Someone was trying to break into this room, but why was he taking so long to do it? He broke down the front door in one hit. So what happened?

It didn't take long for him to answer.

Something was thrown through the now wide enough hole. It hit the floor a few feet away from us with a thud.

I turned to see what it was.

It began to spew gas that filled the room, cloaking everything in it.

Ciro seemed to understand what was happening, because he said, "Put your focus back on the Starlite and get out of here! Now!"

So I did as I was told. I squeezed the charm so hard, my knuckles turned white, and completely forgot about everything that was happening around me.

Suddenly, an image surfaced in my mind. It was dark, but there were lights twinkling every few seconds. Small dots in the distance came into view. They were spherical objects, but were too blurry to make out anything else about them. Where was this?

I heard Ciro cough, and looked down at him, shaking away the picture. I was a few more feet off the ground.

"Keep...your...focus." He was struggling to get the words out. The gas must have been choking him.

"Ciro!" I called.

"Focus."

I hesitantly closed my eyes again, afraid something was going to happen to him if I looked away.

To my surprise, the image was still there. It was less hazy, but I still couldn't tell where it was. Maybe if I tried a little harder...

I willed the picture to become clearer. Forced it to tell me what it was. And I got an answer.

_Go._

It wasn't a voice; more like a thought, but I hadn't thought it.

I felt myself start to move, gradually getting faster.

By the time I opened my eyes again, I was outside, above my house. How that happened, I didn't know. But I could see where I had been, like the roof was invisible. How _that _was happening, I didn't know. Most of the gas had cleared out of the room and I could see Ciro lying on the ground. He wasn't moving.

I gasped. The man who had broken in was walking towards him, slowly, casually.

Both figures were becoming too small to see though; I was still getting higher.

Ciro was unconscious, with a dangerous man standing over top of him.

"Ciro!" I screamed as loud as I possibly could, but I knew it would be no use. I was too far away for anyone to hear anything.

Before I knew it, the bright, blue sky around me had turned to a dark purple, then eventually faded into black. I must have been in space- that would be the most logical guess. There were stars moving by me. Or was I moving by them? I couldn't tell anymore.

Ciro was probably going to be killed, and I just left him.

No, I was taken away from him by this stupid necklace. Suddenly, I hated it. I could have done something to help if it hadn't have dragged me here! I didn't know what, but...Argh!

I tried to rip the thing off my neck, but the moment I did, I heard,

_Stop._

and stopped moving.

I wasn't even paying attention, so for a second I was confused. I looked around, and saw...I saw the image that was in my head. The twinkling lights, stars apparently, were shooting every which direction. The spherical objects were...well, I wasn't exactly sure what they were. They looked like worlds, not that that really made much sense.

I was just floating there, staring wide-eyed, mouth open when the Starlite charm picked itself up. I didn't even notice until it was right in front of my eyes.

"What?"

It responded by gently pulling me towards a smaller "world".

I remembered what Ciro said, about it taking me where it thought I'd be safe. Maybe this was it.

I let it pull me along. It didn't take long until we were close enough for me to be able to see the ocean below. It was huge and sparkling underneath the bright sun. And it was getting closer. I was speeding up now. Not like I was when I was leaving Galaxy. That was the Starlite's doing- this felt like gravity. I was falling; I was going to crash into that huge ocean any second now. But instead of freaking out like I had been all day, I braced myself for the impact. It didn't look like the Starlite was going to stop this, so I did what I could.

I pulled my arms and legs in to form a cannonball, hid my face inside, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I must have been higher up than I thought.

But then-

_SPLASH!_

I heard my body hit the water, but didn't feel it. There was no pain like I had expected, just a sound.

I felt like I was back in space. Just floating. After about a minute, when I thought it was safe, I lifted my head. I could see the surface of the water, and the sun shining through it.

I let my arms and legs fall back into their normal place. It was actually very peaceful down here.

But then I felt my throat start to burn. My chest was pounding, and I realized that I couldn't breathe.

Frantically, I tried to swim back up to get some air, but I wasn't fast enough. Things started to get fuzzy, my head was dizzy, my throat on fire. Then I felt weak. I couldn't move anything. And everything turned black.

* * *

"Sora! Riku! Come here! I think something fell into the water!"

* * *

And there you have it. Chapter One, complete. I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not entirely sure when the next chapter will be out, but I'll try to make it as soon as possible. Goodbye for now


	2. Chapter Two

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Two

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

I felt…cold…was I wet?

I heard…voices…whispers in the background.

I saw…darkness…no, there was light, but I couldn't get my eyes to find it. Maybe if I opened them…

Then there was too much light. I couldn't see anything but the blinding, burning light of the…sun?

I immediately pulled an arm up to cover my eyes.

Then the whispers turned to shouts.

"Look! She's awake!"

It was a girl's voice, one I didn't recognize. Had she come to visit Galaxy?

The soft padding of footsteps in the grass now filled my ears.

Wait, grass?

Using the other hand that was still laying beside me, I clutched some of the surrounding dirt in it. No, not dirt. It felt more like…sand? There wasn't any sand on Galaxy, at least not any that I knew of.

And that's when I remembered. The whole morning came flooding back to me in one terrifying rush. Everything played back through my head in fast-forward, and as soon as it ended, I sat up abruptly, startling the girl who had been sitting next to me. She screamed, which, in turn, caused me to scream.

I whipped my head to the side, and backed away, all the while studying the stranger.

She had shoulder-length, deep red hair, blue eyes, and looked about as frightened as I felt.

But before I could say anything, two other figures came into view. They were both boys, one taller than the other. The shorter one had brown hair, which was spiked up in all directions, while the latter had long, silver hair. They shared the same look of concern, although touched with a hint of amusement.

What could they possibly find funny about this?

"It's okay, don't be afraid." The girl said.

"Who are you?" I asked, ignoring her request for me to calm down.

She smiled. "I'm Kairi. These are my friends, Sora, and Riku." She gestured to the two standing behind her.

"Hi." The one Kairi called Sora said.

Riku just kept quiet.

"Hello." I said weakly.

I looked around for the first time. We were on a beach with palm trees scattered here and there. Over a little ways was a wooden bridge connecting this island and a tiny one out in the water. There was a tree on that island bent over in such a way, it looked more like a large bench.

"Where am I?" I muttered to myself. Apparently Kairi had heard.

"These are the Destiny Islands." She said, still smiling.

I thought back again. The last thing I remembered was being underwater. So, how did I get up here? I didn't even see an island from the sky.

"Did one of you pull me out of the water?"

"That was me." Riku said. His head was up, but I wasn't totally sure he was looking at me.

"Oh…thank you."

"Don't mention it."

And then we were silent. The only thing that I could hear was the wind moving through the trees.

It stayed that way for a minute or two, until Sora finally said, "So what's your name?"

Seemed fair. I had been the one asking all the questions up till this point.

"Luna."

"Where did you come from?" he continued.

There, I was at a loss for words. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't tell him that I floated through space from another world, and landed here. There's no way he'd believe me. _I_ didn't really believe it myself. But what was I supposed to do? Lie?…seemed like the best choice for right now.

"I d-don't r-remember." I stuttered. I never was good at lying. I'd tried it on Ciro before, and he saw right through me.

"Hmm. Well, okay."

He actually bought it. That was a relief.

"Ya know, you should really try to dry off. Your clothes are still pretty wet." Kairi said, changing the subject.

Good point. I really had completely forgotten about that.

"Um, okay."

"Here," Kairi said cheerily, while handing me a stack of towels. "I was on my way to go get them when I saw you fall into the water."

"Thank you." I took one of the towels, and stood up. Then immediately fell down, landing on my hands and knees.

"Are you alright?" I heard one of them ask, but I'm not sure which one it was. I was too preoccupied with my own thoughts to answer.

What just happened? It's like I couldn't use my legs. Nothing hurts; I just couldn't keep myself up. It's almost as if my legs weren't there…

"Luna?"

"Huh?" I replied, jerking my head up.

"I said are you alright?" It had been Kairi, of course. Everyone else was still standing behind her, worry in their eyes.

"I-I don't know."

"Can you stand?"

"I don't know," I repeated, "Let me try again."

So I pushed my hands up off the ground, and straightened my legs. But fell back down again, barely stopping myself from landing face-first.

"No, I can't." But _why?_ I silently added.

"Hmm, then maybe we should try and find a doctor. You could be hurt. Riku, can you carry her to the boats?"

He gave no reply for a moment. I couldn't help but wonder if he was really going to refuse.

"Yeah, but first, can you excuse us for a moment?" He asked me.

"Um, yeah, sure."

Then he pulled Sora and Kairi away towards the bridge. The three of them started talking. About what, I'm not sure. Probably me.

I sighed and looked away from them, instead deciding to stare out at the big, blue ocean before me. Some ways across it, I could see yet another island, this one bigger than the one we were on right now. There were houses everywhere. That must have been where Kairi, Sora, Riku, and everyone else lived. Was I going to have to live there now? Was this what Ciro wanted? He wanted me to be safe, so he gave me the Starlite, which brought me here. Then I guess so…but did he also want me to get sick with worry? Am I just supposed to give up? Start some fake life here and forget about him? _Ciro, what do I do?_

I reached up and grabbed the little star that still hung around my neck. I needed stop thinking about this. It was only going to make me cry. And I didn't need that right then. So, forcing myself to think about something else – _anything_ else – I turned around my body around to face what had previously been behind me. I saw a part of land that was raised up like a step, and beyond that, a pool of water fed by a waterfall.

This whole island was really very pretty, a paradise for those seeking relaxation. Maybe that was what I needed. Maybe this was where I was supposed to end up after all.

Kairi and the others were still standing over under the bridge, but they had stopped talking. Now they were just standing there, looking deep in thought.

Then I saw Sora say something, causing all three of them to turn and look at me. That made me a little uncomfortable, and I quickly turned away. But out of the corner of my eye, I could see them make their way back over to me.

Moments later, they were all standing over top of me, and I sort of felt intimidated. I couldn't run away, and even if I could, there was nowhere to go.

Kairi bent down until she was eye-level with me. She locked her eyes with mine and just sat there, thinking about something. I wished I could read her like I could Ciro.

"Luna." She said at last. There wasn't any cheeriness in her voice like there was earlier. She was being completely serious, which didn't help with the tension that was building up around us.

"Yes?" I asked slowly, afraid of what she might say next.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

* * *

There was an annoying tapping sound somewhere behind me. It mercilessly prodded at my half-conscious mind until I was forced to groan, and open my eyes. I stretched my arms out, and tried sitting up, but a sudden throbbing in my head halted me.

"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to wake up."

I knew that voice. I would never forget that sarcastic, venomous voice for the rest of my life.

Forgetting about the pain in my head, I quickly whirled around to face the speaker. It was exactly who I knew it'd be.

"It's about time." He said again.

I wanted to say something, but I was too angry to make my mouth work. Then I noticed the cage I was locked in. There were metal bars and walls all around me.

"Where did you bring me?" I asked, the anger apparent in my voice.

"Heh, that's a secret."

"Then why did you bring me here? I'm not even the one you want."

"No, but you're the perfect bait."

"Bait?"

"You really don't know your sister very well, do you?"

I narrowed my eyes. What was he trying to say? "And you do?"

He smirked. "Luna isn't going to sit by while her precious brother is in danger."

"She doesn't know where I am. She doesn't know about any of this, so just leave her alone."

"She will soon."

"What do you mean?"

Now he chuckled. Was this _funny_ to him? "I'm not going to spoil the surprise. Right now, all you need to do is sit there and try not to cause any trouble. Can you handle that?"

I jumped to my feet. I was ready to kill him, and I desperately wished that gate wasn't there so I could.

"Ha! What do you plan on doing? Face it, you're trapped."

As much as I hated it, he was right. I needed to warn Luna. I needed to protect her, but I couldn't even get out of this jail cell.

"Oh, and I forgot to tell you," he suddenly lunged forward, and landed right in front of the door to the little dungeon, arms extended, a sword in each hand, "I got my other sword back." Then he withdrew them, and placed them back into their holder.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to.

"Yeah, I'm sure a guy like you has a busy agenda."

"Hmm, you would know all about my work, wouldn't you?"

"Too well. It makes me sick."

"Well I'm glad to have the opinion of a pawn."

I couldn't take it anymore. I threw myself at the gate bars, not caring about the pain I knew would come from it. I reached as far as I could through them, trying to grab a hold of the guy so I could tear him to pieces. It was time he paid. And I wanted to be the one to do it.

This only seemed to amuse him even more.

"I'm just going to leave you to figure out your escape route. Goodbye for now." He said while laughing.

Then he turned and walked out the opening that was before him and up the stairs beyond it.

When I couldn't hear him anymore, I pulled my arms back in, and gripped the bars tightly, resting my head on one.

I sighed. This whole stupid situation was unfair, especially to Luna; she shouldn't have had to leave like that. Now she's scared, and confused, and it's all my fault.

I let out what could only be described as a roar. Loud and furious, it echoed off the metal walls around me, then eventually faded into nothingness. I just stood there, letting my mind wander. I didn't know what to do, or how to get out of here.

And so I did what any hopeless person would do: I collapsed to my knees, and cried. The last thought that crossed my mind before I fell back into unconsciousness was, "Luna, I'm sorry."

* * *

Chapter Two complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	3. Chapter Three

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Three

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

"Who are you and what do you want?"

I sat there, frozen in a horrible mixture of confusion and nausea. I really thought I might pass out again. Kairi was staring daggers into me, and even though she was a relatively tiny girl, I was still scared.

"Kairi! You don't have to be rude!" Sora said to her. Then, to me, he said, "I'm sorry, I think she misunderstood."

"About what?" I said, trying my hardest to emphasize just how confused I was.

"Riku thinks you're lying about something, and-"

"Sora!" Riku shouted.

"And we just want to know if it's true." he finished casually.

"Oh…" I guess Sora was a lot easier to fool than Riku.

"I'm sorry too. I'm not usually mean. But so much has happened recently, and I just want to stay out of trouble." Kairi spoke up.

Sora chuckled lightly. "Kairi, we _can_ take care of ourselves."

"I know, but…but is it so wrong for me to worry?"

"No! You just don't need to take it out on-"

"Okay, before we get too off-topic, Luna, please, tell us the truth." Riku interrupted.

"Why do you think I'm lying?" I still didn't want to tell them everything.

"Let's just call it a feeling I had." His face was expressionless.

"Then what is it that you think I'm lying about?"

"Where you came from. You remember, and I can tell."

I bit my lip. Maybe I should just tell them. After all, they did save my life. If I had seen a girl come shooting out of the sky, I'd be willing to at least listen to her story.

"All right, fine. I just don't want you to think I'm crazy."

"Deal." Sora said, smiling.

That made me feel better. I almost smiled back, but I wanted to get this over with before I got my hopes too high. I looked over to bench-like tree out in the water. "Can we go over there to talk, though? I'd really like to get off the ground."

All three of them followed my gaze.

"Sure," Kairi said, back in that cheery mood, "Riku?"

"Right." Then he started towards me. Why? He bent down and put one arm under my legs and the other around my back.

"Oh, wait, don't!" He immediately let go, and stepped back, actually looking a little alarmed.

"What's wrong?"

"I really don't want to be carried."

"How do you plan on getting over there then? By flying?"

If a light bulb could have actually flicked on above my head, it would've right then.

"Maybe…"

I grabbed the Starlite, shut my eyes, and hoped this would work.

_Is there any way I can control you? _I asked it. Not out loud, but in my mind. It felt strange trying to communicate with a necklace, but if it could talk to me, then why couldn't I talk to it?

Instead of a direct answer like I had been expecting, it cut straight to the chase and I felt myself slowly rise above the sandy ground.

I opened my eyes to find myself staring down at three very shocked faces.

"You…you're…floating." Kairi managed to get out.

Ignoring her, I pushed myself forward a little. Then a little more, until I was moving at a regular speed.

"H-hey, wait up!"

I stopped, and turned around. Sora, Riku, and Kairi were all jogging to try and catch up to me. I hadn't realized just how far I'd gone. When the three of them had caught up and were again standing beneath me, I said, "Sorry." And with that, continued forward.

I crossed the water that separated the others from the island. When I was hovering above the designated tree, I gently lowered myself onto it, and landed in a sitting position. This was actually a pretty effective way of getting around. It looked like it would be my only way for now.

The rest arrived soon after, having used the bridge. Sora and Kairi hoisted themselves up and took a seat on each side of me, while Riku leaned up against the trunk, crossing his arms in front of him.

We all sat there in a nervous silence. At least that's how it felt to me; I wasn't thrilled about having to explain this. If only I had been born a better liar. I inwardly sighed.

"So where do you want to start?" Sora asked.

"Well, I guess I should start from the beginning." Was my intelligent reply.

Kairi attempted to suppress a laugh, which, unfortunately, didn't work. "That seems like a good idea."

I felt my face heat up from embarrassment. "Um, yes, well, okay." It wasn't a very well put together sentence, but it was all I could come up with at the moment. Plus, it allowed me to stall for one more second.

I took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

"This morning, a man dressed in all black broke into our house."

"Our house?" Kairi asked.

Oh, right. They didn't know about Ciro.

"Me and my brother, Ciro's house," I informed her, "The man said he had come for something. Then Ciro told me that I was in danger. H-he gave me this necklace," I held the little star in the palm of my hand to show them, "He called it a Starlite. He said it would have the power to take me somewhere safe, and, well, it brought me here," Tears starting forming in my eyes. "But I had to leave my brother in the hands of a killer. Then, well, you guys know the rest. But I'm really worried about him. I don't know if he's alright, and…" Unable to finish my sentence, I brought a hand up the wipe the tears away.

All was quiet again, which didn't make me feel better. I wished someone would say something, just to make the eerie silence go away. Maybe I'd have to be that person.

"So?"

"Guy dressed in black." Riku finally said, somewhat monotonously. Then he turned to face Sora and asked, "Does that ring the same bell for you as it does for me?"

I hadn't noticed until now, but Sora looked a lot more serious than he had been a minute ago. Was this normal for them? To change their moods _that_ quickly?

"Yeah."

Kairi looked a little shocked. "But I thought you guys…"

"We did." Riku said.

"Do you really think it's possible?" Kairi asked.

"I'm not sure." Sora answered.

I sat there, blank faced. If I had been confused before, then I didn't even know how to describe how I was feeling now. What were they talking about? Might as well ask.

"Um, excuse me, what's going on?"

"It's a long story." Riku said. I think he was expecting that to be a sufficient answer. But it wasn't, not for me.

"I have time. It doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere for a while."

"Unless you fly." Sora said, less serious now.

"Actually, I just figured that out. I didn't know I could control it. But I still want to know, have you met the guy I was talking about?"

"Well that's what we're wondering." Riku said.

"Hmm." I murmured.

"Was it a black coat?" Riku asked quickly.

"What?"

"Was he wearing a black coat? You just said he was wearing black."

"N-no. It was a black outfit, and he had this bandana tied around his face, but he wasn't wearing a coat."

Low as it was, I could hear the three of them breathe out in unison. Out of relief?

"Why?" I asked. I still didn't understand.

"You sure you want to hear the story?" Sora asked.

I nodded. "Yes, please. I need to think about something else right now."

"But wait," Kairi interrupted, "How do we tell a story from three perspectives? Weren't we all in different places most of the time?"

"That's true. But how hard could it be to piece everything together?" Sora responded.

"Sora, you were asleep for a year, remember?" Riku countered.

"What?" Kairi asked, shocked.

"Heh, heh, about that…"

"What happened?"

I could've wasted my time trying to figure their conversation out. I could've asked them as many times as I wanted, until my throat hurt. Would it have helped? Probably not. So I came up with another solution: I zoned out.

I really had wanted to hear it, but my brain was tired; it had worked overtime today. So I just took this time to relax and watch the sky slowly change from bright blue to a fiery orange, indicating that night was on its way.

Had we really been sitting there that long?

Riku, Sora, and Kairi had argued, talked, and laughed the hours away- the subject had probably changed a few times, but I hadn't noticed. It was amazing they weren't exhausted yet. But I was, and I yawned as my signal.

"Oh," Kairi said, noticing I was there for the first time in a while, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just tired is all." I said through another yawn.

"It is getting late, isn't it?" Sora agreed.

"We should be heading back." Riku said.

Then Sora and Kairi hopped off the tree, turned around, and stared at me as if waiting for something.

"Oh, right." I said.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the Starlite's energy like I had done before. After a moment, I was floating again.

"Let's go."

Riku led the way. When we reached a small deck, I finally got to see the boats they had been talking about. There were three, one for each of them, all sitting in a row. Riku hopped into his, Sora into his, and Kairi into hers. I stood there, not really knowing what to do.

"Um." I said, getting their attention.

"You can come with me." Kairi said, that smile back on her face.

"Okay."

I glided over and hovered above the boat for a moment, then dropped down into it. There was no point in attempting it, I knew that, but I felt like I had to try at least one last time. I landed softly on my toes, then nervously let my feet hit the floor. Releasing the energy I had been relying on to keep me up, I tried balancing. It didn't work. I fell, making sure this time to fall backwards so I wouldn't hit Kairi who was in front of me. Instead I felt the floor of the small, wooden boat as I hit it. Everyone else was staring at me, silently.

"I just don't understand." I said to myself.

"Well, you don't need to figure it out right now. Come on, let's get going." Sora said from the boat beside us.

"Right." I answered, quietly.

They each nodded, and picked up the paddles that had been lying inside. They began rowing away from the island, and towards the mainland with all the houses. I looked back, wondering where Ciro was right now. I hoped with all my heart that he was safe.

* * *

I was lying on a mattress beside Kairi's bed, curled up beneath a few sheets she had brought me. It only made me miss my own bed even more.

When we had reached the mainland, we had all decided that it would probably be best if I didn't fly around any of the other people. So, very reluctantly, I let Riku carry me to Kairi's house, which is also where we agreed I should stay for now. It had been extremely uncomfortable, and overall unpleasant, which is why I hadn't wanted him to earlier, but I didn't want any more drama, so I put up with it for a few minutes. Riku had taken me inside, followed by Kairi, while Sora waited by the door. He set me on a chair, and Kairi asked if I wanted anything to eat. I declined, curious myself as to why I wasn't hungry. Under any other circumstances, I would have been starving by this point. Anyhow, Sora and Riku soon left, after saying goodbye. Then Kairi busied herself with setting up a bed for me. Rest had suddenly sounded so perfect, so I told her I was just going to go to sleep. She bid me goodnight, and I floated into the room with my makeshift bed.

And that's where I had been for the last few hours. At least, I think it had been hours. I don't know. As much as I had wanted to sleep, I couldn't. All I could think about was that man in black, and every time I closed my eyes, the image of him flooded my brain, and my eyes were forced back open. I could already tell that this was going to be a long night. And I wasn't looking forward to it.

* * *

Chapter Three complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	4. Chapter Four

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Four

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

I didn't know when exactly I had started crying. All I knew was that everything had finally caught up to me. All the hours I had spent being a horrible person and _not_ crying had finally made me realize that I should be. And so I was. My eyes stung and my face was probably red. The pillow was soaked with my overflow of tears. And the only time I wasn't crying was when I collapsed into a miserable sleep from crying too much. But I would always wake back up and remember why I was crying in the first place, which would make me start crying again.

By the time the sun was shining brightly through the window in Kairi's bedroom, I was too drained to cry anymore. So I just lay there in my little bed, thinking the whole previous day through. There had to have been something I could have done to change things, and I was determined to figure it out. I studied every single detail, considering every possibility I could think of. But nothing worked. It ended the same way every time. Ciro was helpless, and in danger, and I was nowhere to be seen. And that was eating me apart.

I heard the door open a little. Then Kairi's head appeared.

"Luna, do you want something to eat?" she asked. Her voice filled with sympathy.

"No, thank you." My voice cracked. I still hadn't eaten anything.

"Then do want someone to talk to?"

That actually sounded nice. "Sure." I sat up, feeling dizzy and sick. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. But it was too late to change my mind. Kairi had bounced over and sat on her bed, facing me.

"If it helps, I know what you're going through." she told me.

This actually surprised me. "You do?"

She nodded. "Mhm. There's this hopeless feeling at the back of your mind, and as much as you want to make it go away, you can't. That's why you've been crying isn't it?"

I gave her no response as my way of saying yes. She understood.

"Don't worry. Things will get better, I promise."

"How do you know?"

"Because they always do."

"Did it for you?"

She smiled. "Yes."

I smiled back. Not because that had made me feel any better, but Kairi might leave if she thought so.

I knew it was a horrible thing to do, but I really just wanted to be alone.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"I think I'm just gonna get some more sleep now, if that's okay."

"Alright. I'll be here if you need anything."

I nodded to her. She got up off the bed, and walked over to the door. But before I let her leave, I said, "Kairi," she turned back around, "Thank you."

Her smile widened. "You're welcome." And with that, she left the room.

* * *

"She hasn't moved since she got here. I tried to cheer her up yesterday, but I don't think it worked. She's really sad."

Kairi and Sora were standing outside the door to the room I was still in. Kairi was right- I _hadn't_ moved. The rest of yesterday hadn't consisted of much more than me sleeping. But now I was awake, and listening to every word of their conversation.

"Sora, maybe you should try."

Oh, no. I really didn't want another pep talk.

"Okay. I'll see what I can do."

The door opened and the two of them walked in. I couldn't help but wonder where Riku was.

I was laying on my side, and I could see Sora walk towards me out of the corner of my eye. Kairi just stayed by the door.

He sat down on the floor beside me and said, "Hey."

I remained quiet.

"We were gonna go outside. You want to come with us?"

More silence.

"Come on, I really think you'll feel better if you do. Try to get your mind off of your brother and have some fun."

That did it. How could he say that to me? _Don't_ think about Ciro? He didn't know what he was talking about!

I bolted upright, thinking about how I was going to tell him off.

Wait. I couldn't tell him off. Not after all he'd done for me.

So I just pulled my blanket covered knees up to my chest, and clutched them, trying my best not to cry again.

"Luna?" he asked.

"You don't know what it's like." I said softly.

"Maybe I don't know how you feel, but I know that nothing's going to change by sitting here."

"I know."

"Then why don't you come with us?"

"Because…I'm sad."

"But you don't want to be sad forever do you?"

A moment passed before I responded. "I want to know that Ciro's safe."

"Well, you know your brother a lot better than I do. Do you think he's the type of person to go down without a fight?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Then don't you think that it's possible that he's okay?"

I nodded this time. "Yes."

"Isn't that enough to make you feel better?"

I let more time pass, contemplating what he was trying to tell me. "Alright, I'll come." I said, turning to face him for the first time. I could see Kairi brighten across the room. Sora also smiled.

"Then let's go." He stood back up and held out his hand, waiting for me to take it. I did. He pulled me up to a standing position, while the sheets fell off of me. I let the Starlite's energy lift me once more.

I forced a smile to both of them and said, "I should probably go clean myself up a little."

"Don't worry about it," Sora said, "You look fine."

"Yeah." Kairi agreed.

"I doubt it, but okay."

Then we left the room, then the house, and we were walking- well, they were- down to the shore where they kept the boats. We found Riku there, waiting for us.

"Hi, Riku." Kairi said to him.

"Hey," he said back, "Ready?"

"Yup." Sora told him.

Riku nodded to us, then made his way over to the set of boats.

Preparing his own for the mini voyage, Sora groaned and said, "I really hate having to row back and forth every time we go over there."

"You could just swim there if you dislike it that much." Riku retorted.

Kairi laughed. "No way! He's way too lazy for that!"

It was actually kind of funny watching the three fight with each other.

"Oh yeah? Bet I could get there faster than you, Riku!"

Riku stopped pushing his boat out into the water, and turned to face him. "In your dreams."

"So it's a race?"

"Of course."

"Are they always like this?" I couldn't help but ask Kairi.

She sighed. "Sadly, yes." Then she told the two boys, "I'll judge! On your marks, get set, go!"

And they were off, faster than I had ever seen anyone move in my life. They dove into the water, their arms a blur as they swam.

Kairi turned back to me. "Come on, we'd better get going. The two will be busy fighting by the time we get there."

I smirked- yes, actually smirked- at her. Then we got the boat ready and started towards the island. It only took a few minutes and when we arrived, Sora and Riku were indeed fighting over who had won the race.

"Kairi! You're finally here! Please tell him that _I_ won!" Sora shouted at her.

"Sora, I got here before you. Be a good loser."

"Guys, relax! I was watching the whole time. It was definitely a tie." Kairi intervened.

"What?" Both boys simultaneously asked, although it was very loud.

Kairi remained calm, which surprised me. Guess they really did do this all the time.

"It was a tie. You both got here at the same time. Isn't that right, Luna?"

My eyes snapped up to her, confused as to why she was asking me. I hadn't been paying attention.

"Uh, um, I-I guess." I stuttered. It wasn't exactly a lie as I really had no clue who had actually won, but it was enough to make me stammer like an idiot.

"See?" Kairi said, nonchalantly.

Sora and Riku were both dumbfounded. I guessed it was because of how big a deal Kairi wasn't making this. But they shrugged it off eventually.

"Right, so what now?" She asked them.

"Dunno. Did you bring the swimsuits?" Sora asked.

She nodded. "Sure did. They're in the boat."

Swimsuits? I never saw any swimsuits. She ran back over to the boat and pulled out the said swimsuits. Wow, I never realized just how inattentive I was until then.

"Here they are." Kairi announced when she returned, holding them up for us to see.

Well, now that that was settled and they had found something to do for a while, I felt it was time to go find somewhere quiet so I could go back to my sulking. Hey, I said I'd come with them. I never promised I'd do anything.

I decided on the pool of water behind us. I floated over and sat on the edge and let my feet hang down into the cool, clear liquid, staring over at the waterfall pouring down into it. After a few minutes, I managed to tune the others out. And a few more minutes after that, I was in the same depressed state I had been in earlier. I felt miserable, but in a happy way. Being sad just seemed right…and therefore I felt good. But not good enough that I didn't feel bad as well. Just a perfect balance of good and bad. I sighed. I didn't know how I felt.

I looked over and noticed something in the corner of the rock walls. A hole? It looked pretty deep. Maybe it was a tunnel. But where did it lead? Or did it lead somewhere? Should I go check it out? Am I crazy for thinking about this?

_SPLASH!_

I jumped, screaming all the while. What _was_ that?

I turned my head and saw Sora sitting where what would have been beside me had I not moved. He was smiling, as if he were proud that he had scared me.

"Sora!" I yelled at him, half relieved, half furious.

He laughed. "Sorry."

I scooted back to where I had been.

"So why'd you come over here?" He asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, but said nothing.

"You want to come have some fun with us?"

Again, I shrugged. Honestly, I just wanted to be alone.

But then again…

"I thought you guys were going swimming?"

"Yeah, we are."

"Well, um, I'd rather not get my clothes wet again."

"Kairi brought an extra swimsuit for you, just in case."

"Really?"

"Of course. As long as you're here, we want you to feel at home."

That made me happier. Not by much, but happier nonetheless.

I smiled up at him. "That's really nice."

He smiled back. Not the mischievous smiled he had on earlier, but a simple, genuine, happy smile. "It's no problem, really."

"Okay." That smile made it really hard to say no.

"Great."

Once again, Sora had managed to convince me to leave my moping. I really needed to learn how to prevent that. But for now, I might as well go with him. I'd get to be by myself tonight.

Kairi and Riku had already changed into their swimsuits. Sora hadn't yet.

"Luna! Glad to see you changed your mind!" Kairi exclaimed happily as we neared them.

I nodded.

"I left your swimsuit over there," She gestured a little ways behind us. "Yours too Sora."

"Right. I'll be back in a minute." Sora said, before running off towards the pile of swimwear, picking his up, and then walking into a little shack.

"Hey, Luna, can I ask you a question?" It was Riku. I really hadn't heard much from him since I had arrived.

"Yeah, sure." I said, trying to sound as pleasant as I could manage.

"Where did your brother get that, what did you call it, Starlite?"

Oh…that was a good question. I had no idea.

"I…I don't actually know." I admitted.

I held it in my hand. The warm energy that it filled me with was comforting. It made me feel stronger. For a brief moment, I felt like I could sense Ciro. I knew that he was alive, safe.

I gasped. "Ciro?" I asked myself quietly.

"Huh?" Kairi's voice entered my ears. That girl must have really good hearing.

I looked at her. "What? Oh, nothing."

We stayed quiet after that until I heard the door to the shack Sora had gone in open. He must have finished dressing. My assumption was confirmed when he came running up beside me.

"Your turn." He said.

I left the trio and headed to where the last, lone, swimsuit was. I had to lower myself to my knees to pick it up, then I resumed my floating position, and headed towards the shack.

Shutting the door behind me, I looked around the small, boarded building. There wasn't much to it, except a set of wooden stairs that led up and around until they disappeared around the corner.

I began to change into the little, yellow, two-piece swimsuit.

In a couple minutes, I was ready to reemerge. I took my other clothes that I had neatly folded and set them beside the shack where the others had set their clothes.

Sora, Kairi, and Riku were all in the water, splashing and dunking each other like a bunch of little kids. It was sort of amusing.

As I was hovering above the edge of the water, something nagged at the back of my mind, but I couldn't get myself to focus on it, so I just let it go.

I dropped down a little until my toes were barely touching the surface.

And then all of a sudden, the nagging thought shot forward, and a clear, vivid image was the only thing I could see. In the image, I was underwater, terror written on my face, afraid for my life as I was drowning. I was trying to swim, but made little progress, and then I watched my arms and legs go limp, and I started to fall into darkness. I couldn't find myself anymore. I was lost in a world of black.

I fell to the ground, clutching my head, wanting to make the nightmare stop.

Then I felt an arm wrap around my back. And it was gone. The memory ended as quickly as it had begun. I looked up and saw Kairi's face. She looked worried, as did Sora and Riku who were standing behind her.

"What happened?" Riku asked.

I was gasping for air, while I thought of an answer. An answer that would make them stop worrying. But I couldn't think of one, so I just told them the truth.

"I almost drowned the other day. I almost _died_. It was so scary. I couldn't breathe, or move."

"It's alright, Luna, you're safe." Kairi told me.

"Yeah, I know."

"Do you still want to go swimming?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure. What if I start to drown again?"

"Don't worry. We'll be right here with you." Kairi said.

I thought for a moment, and came to a conclusion: I needed to face these fears. It was my only hope of ever having a normal life again. And that's exactly what I told her. But even as I said it, I still wondered if it was even possible to have a normal life.

"Then how about we try tomorrow?" Kairi asked.

"Okay. Tomorrow."

And for the first time since I had gotten here, I actually felt a glimmer of hope burn somewhere deep inside me; in my heart.

* * *

Chapter Four complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

**NOTE: There has been an small, but important change to Chapter One. Read back through it if you like, however it is not very noticeable. Just thought I'd let you know.**


	5. Chapter Five

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Five

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

_Just go for it. You'll be fine. Everything will be…fine._

I was trying to convince myself to try what I had failed yesterday. The only problem was that it wasn't working. I had been at the edge of the water for ten minutes now, and I wasn't any less worried than we had gotten here. Sora, Kairi, Riku, and I were back into our swimsuits, and they were waiting patiently for me to start so that they could help me get over my newly developed phobia.

I felt bad that I was making them stand there like that, but this was a lot harder to do than I had previously thought it was going to be. All I could think about was getting into the water, and immediately sinking to my death. I knew that they would save me if needed, but I still couldn't shake the fear.

But. That was the word causing all of this. I knew I could do this, _but_ the word "_but_" was stopping me.

_Stop saying but. _I told myself.

And I did.

_You can do this, _and _you will do this._

I took in a breath. "Alright, I'm ready."

I could hear sighs of relief behind me, where the others stood.

Shutting my eyes and forming my hands into fists**, **I immersed my bare feet into the lukewarm ocean water. A vague memory starting played through my mind. However, it wasn't a nightmarish one as yesterday. This one, though faint, relaxed me enough so that I felt comfortable loosening my fists. I could hear laughter in the memory, a child's laughter.

"Luna?"

My eyes snapped open at the sound of my name. It was another child's voice, one that sounded familiar. One I remembered hearing a long time ago.

"Luna."

I blinked my eyes a couple times, slowly coming out of my trance. I realized that it hadn't been a child calling me, but Sora.

I turned around to look at him.

"How are you doing?" he asked me, a look of concern on his face.

The words seemed to take a while to sink in, but when I did understand what he was talking about, I said, "Fine."

"What are you thinking about?" Riku asked now. He had proved very good at reading my mind.

I directed my gaze at him, still somewhat zoned out. "A memory."

"Do you want to stop? You look a little out of it." Kairi took her turn commenting.

That caught my attention, though. "No, no, it's fine. I'm fine."

"You sure?"

I turned back to the open ocean in front of me. "Yeah."

"Okay." She sounded unsure. I would just have to prove to her- and me- that I really could do this.

Letting my feet drag through the water, I floated outwards a bit more. When I was deep enough so that my hands touched the surface, I stopped. The memory was coming back. Blurry pictures now went with the sounds I had just heard. Blue and green blended together, and it was hard to make out much. It reminded me of the vision of space the Starlite had given me a few days before.

I heard splashes. The others must have decided to come out into the water as well.

I was still concentrating on the lingering thought. Something about it was familiar. Really familiar. The blurriness had cleared up some, and now I could see a small lake. On the lake was a boat. And on the boat there were people, four of them. But who, I couldn't tell.

Curiosity overtook me, as I wanted to know who the people were.

And then I got an idea. The further I went out to sea, the more I seemed to remember. Maybe if I…

I pushed forward through the water, no longer caring about my fear. I just wanted to remember.

And remember I did. The video started playing in a fast loop, over and over again. Everything was crystal clear, including the faces of the mystery people. There was a man, a woman, and a little boy and girl. The girl had long, white hair that hung in her face as she jumped out of the boat and splashed in the water. It was my family. We are all out on the lake back on Galaxy, the one behind our house. Ciro jumped in after me, while our parents watched over us with a smile. We were all so happy.

I knew this story. Ciro used to tell me about this day all the time when we were younger. And what I was seeing now is how I had pictured it- I never actually remembered it, but eventually just accepted it as the truth. I was probably too young to remember anyway.

Thinking about that day made me feel happy when I was sad, and so I loved it.

I blinked the water out of my eyes.

Wait, why was there water in my eyes? On my face, soaking my hair.

I was completely underwater. When had that happened? More importantly, why was it so easy to breathe? I felt like I was a scuba diver with a huge oxygen tank. Only I didn't have one. I could just breathe. It was so bizarre.

I moved my arms and legs to swim forward. But all I did was sink lower. I tried again with the same results. Panic started to form within me. Forcing myself to remain calm, I tried to figure out how to get back out. I thought about the similarities between how I felt in space and how I felt now. I thought about not being able to stand on land. I thought about the Starlite's power being the only way I could move around. And then I figured it out.

I held the Starlite, and focused on moving. Then I could feel myself drifting through the dark blue ocean.

I released my grip on the necklace and began to freely move about, like I would in the air, or in space.

I smiled. If only Ciro could see me. The little girl he thought needed so much protection was growing up and fending for herself. I spun around in the water, hands in the air, as happy as I had been all those years ago with my family out on the lake.

I stopped when I saw someone swimming towards me. Actually, it was three someones. Riku was in the front with Kairi and Sora following behind.

My smile widened, and I waved at them. They all looked relieved to see me there.

Without really thinking, I opened my mouth, and said, "Don't worry, I'm okay." That surprised all four of us. Words were supposed to sound muffled and indistinct underwater, but I could speak perfectly.

"I think it's the Starlite." I told them. They each nodded in understanding.

Then Riku point up towards the surface, and swam in that direction.

While Sora and Kairi swam after him, I floated. There was no need for me to kick my legs. I could just push myself along with the Starlite.

When we all broke through, everyone, save me, was gasping for breath. I just left the water and continued floating up into the sky.

When their breathing pattern returned to normal, Sora looked up at me and said, "Is there anything you can't do?"

I just laughed. Something about this whole ordeal had made me so happy- for the first time in my life, I was able to do something without Ciro helping me. I couldn't figure out how I had ever been afraid of the water, even for just a little while.

"C'mon, let's head back to shore." I said to them, before taking off.

It wasn't long until I was lying on the beach being dried off by the sun. The others arrived soon after and sat down beside me.

My eyes were shut, and I was smiling to myself. It felt strange being this happy after crying out eyes out a few days before. I was still sad, and I missed Ciro so much, but the idea that he could be safe at home overjoyed me to no end.

I sat up, and looked at my friends. Friends. Could I really consider them that? I had only known them a few days. But they had been so nice to me. Yes, perhaps they were my friends. The thought of this being my new home didn't seem so bad anymore.

A few minutes of silence passed, and it was beginning to irritate me. Luckily, Kairi saved me from having to stand any more of it.

"So are you okay with the water now?"

"Mhm."

"That's good. When you went underwater and didn't come back up, we got worried."

"What were you doing down there anyway?" Sora asked.

"I remembered something I haven't thought of in a long time."

"What was it?"

"Back on Galaxy, where my home is, there's this lake. Years ago, my parents took Ciro and me out on that lake one day. According to Ciro, we all had a lot of fun. And I had completely forgotten about it until now."

"According to?" Riku asked.

"Well, I don't remember that day myself, but I couldn't have been more than three years old, so it makes sense that I wouldn't remember."

"Hm." He didn't sound convinced.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked everyone else, attempting to change the subject.

"Why don't you decide?" Kairi suggested.

"Me?" That really did surprise me.

"Yeah, we still don't know much about you, so what do you like to do?"

I had to think about that. What did I like to do? Other than sitting by the lake back home, there wasn't much else I did…at least not anymore.

"Well, I used to spend a lot of time making dream catchers when I was younger."

"Dream catchers?" Kairi asked.

I nodded. "They're supposed to prevent bad dreams. I made dozens of them and hung them all up in my room."

My _old_ room. I needed to work on that. Everything before today was in the past. I lived here now.

"How do you make them?" she continued.

"I'm not sure I remember very well," I said while shaking my head.

"Oh." Kairi sounded disappointed.

More silence. I wished I could think of something else to do. They had asked me after all.

But I felt lost, like in a cave, unable to find any light, the light being an idea. Of course, that may have been a dramatic comparison, but-

I stopped mid-thought, recalling the cave I had seen the day before. Or what may have been a cave.

Without a word, I got up and glided over to the pool of water. Looking to my left, I saw the hole in the rock wall, almost hidden by bushes, but visible nonetheless. I'm sure I had left the others with confused looks on their faces, but I was more interested in the hole.

I hovered just above the ground to the opening, and then dropped to my knees to peer inside.

It was too dark to see anything, but there was indeed a tunnel inside.

Excited by my discovery, I called the others over. They seemed to be in no rush, which meant that they probably already knew about this.

Refusing to wait for them any longer, I crawled inside. I looked up at the rocky ceiling above me. There wouldn't be much room for me to float. So I just crawled the length of the winding tunnel. I ended up inside a cavern. Miscellaneous drawings had been sketched on the walls, and on the large rock off to the side. "Whoa." I whispered to myself.

There now being enough room, I took my usual position in the air, and explored some more. The pictures looked as though children had drawn them, but I couldn't be too sure. In the back was something that looked like a closed door. There was no handle that I could see. What was it doing there? Maybe the others would know.

Just then, I heard footsteps approach me from behind. I turned to face the three I had been expecting.

"Cool, isn't it?" Sora said.

I nodded with a look of wonder on my face. "What is this place?"

Kairi giggled. "It's a secret."

Her answer confused me, but I just shrugged it off and asked my next question. "Is that a door?" I pointed to the wooden object with the golden design around it.

"Sort of." Sora answered.

"But it's not that simple." Riku added.

Another confusing answer. Why couldn't they just tell me?

"What do you mean?"

They all looked at one another, clearly knowing something I didn't.

"It's a long story." Riku said.

That sounded familiar.

"It is the same long story you didn't know how to tell last time?"

They all nodded.

"Well, I'd still like to hear it." And to show them, I took a seat against one of the walls. I was still in my swimsuit, as were the others, and the cold sand beneath me instantly sent a chill through my body, however I made no effort to move. Sora, Riku, and Kairi sat down in front of me.

"You sure you have it all figured out?" I asked. It was meant to be more of a joke than a question, but they nodded anyway.

Sora was the first to speak. "I guess we start with the night the Heartless attacked."

And I was already confused.

* * *

The whole story had taken a few hours at the very least. I had honestly thought Riku was exaggerating when he said it was long. Nope.  
They told me about the Heartless and the Keyblade, Maleficent and her scheme, Ansem -actually they changed that later on, calling him Xehanort's Heartless-, Donald, Goofy, and their quest for their king, and all the worlds they went to and friends they made. Kairi didn't say much during all this, but it was only the first part. It only got worse from there. Sora stayed quiet for a while during the second part I had noticed, but then all three of them started talking, explaining their side of a certain time. For example, Sora talked about what he remembered from Castle Oblivion, Riku talked about what he did after Sora went to sleep, and Kairi talked about what she did back here. Then the Nobodies and Organization XIII were introduced to me, making everything all the more confusing. They told me what they knew about Roxas and Naminé, Sora and Kairi's Nobodies. There were even more worlds they went to, some of them being the same ones from the first part, and then it all ended when the Organization had been destroyed, and everyone, including Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey arrived here safely.

My mind was numb after hearing all this, and I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and go to sleep. I almost did a few times during the story.

"But that still doesn't tell me what this door is." I said.

"It was where this world's Keyhole was located."

Oh, right. They told me about those too.

"It's probably getting late," Kairi quickly, but thankfully, changed the subject, "We should be heading back home."

We all agreed that was a good plan, and started to leave. Riku led the others out, while I took my time. I was too tired to keep up.

I sat up straight and turned a little, seeing for the first time what I had been leaning against. The wall had one of those pictures on them. This one was of what appeared to be a spiky-headed boy and maybe a girl. It was hard to tell. Each head was giving the other a star. A star? How odd. Just one more thing I didn't understand.

Sora and Kairi were sitting outside of the little shack I had changed in, which meant that Riku was inside.

I floated over, and took my place beside them. Nobody said a word the whole time. When one came out from changing, another went in. The cycle continued until we were all in our normal clothes. I thanked Kairi for letting me borrow the swimsuit, and we headed towards the boats that had brought us here.

Before long, we were back in Kairi's house, saying goodbye to Riku and Sora once again.

Kairi and me went to bed shortly after. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. My dream catchers back on Galaxy must have been watching over me because I didn't have any bad dreams that night. In fact, I had a good dream. Ciro was sitting by the lake at night, smiling as if he hadn't a care in the world. He looked up at the stars shining above him, and whispered, "Goodnight, Luna."

* * *

Chapter Five complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

So, I got bored and made a "cover" for what I guess you could call my, um, "book"...the link is on my profile just in case you want to look at it and...stuff...yeah...


	6. Chapter Six

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Six

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

Light was streaming in from the window across the room. It was probably warming me more than the thin sheets on top of me. Regardless the source, the heat felt good.

I lay there on my little mattress for a few more minutes before I yawned and sat up. White hair hung in my face and I realized that I hadn't brushed it in days. I'd have to ask Kairi if she had a brush I could borrow.

Speaking of which, where was she?

The bed beside me was empty, and neatly made. She sure did get up early.

Then again, I had no clue what time it actually was.

I got up, and pushed some of my hair behind my ears so I could see better.

By now, I had become accustomed to floating rather than standing or walking, and even though that matter still perplexed me, I figured I might as well learn to live with it.

I left my bed as it was and headed for the door. Just outside of Kairi's bedroom was an area with a few small couches surrounding a fireplace. Behind the couches, a table, and behind the table, the kitchen. On the wall behind the table were framed pictures of all sizes. I didn't remember seeing them there before now.

I went to take a better look. Most of them were of Kairi at various points in her life. I looked for the youngest picture of her, and found that there weren't any of her as a baby. In one of them, she looked to be about seven or eight. Her hair was a little lighter than it was now, and she was standing on the shore of the mainland with a sad smile on her face. She looked so shy.

"That was my first day here."

I jumped a little, startled by the sound of Kairi's voice. I really hated it when people snuck up on me. I turned around to see her staring at the picture of herself. There was this distant look in her eyes.

"Your first day?"

"I wasn't born here. I came to the islands a few years ago."

I cocked my head. "Where are you from?"

She broke away from the picture, looked down, and shook her head. "I'm not sure."

"Oh…" I couldn't imagine not knowing something like that. That would drive me insane.

She looked back up. "But it's okay. I like it here." And then she was smiling.

So I smiled back. "I like it here too."

I didn't let the silence last long this time. There was still something I wanted to know, even if it wasn't really my business.

"So, um, where were you? I woke up and you weren't here."

"I was over at Selphie's house. I had to ask her something."

I cocked my head again. "Who?"

"She's one of my friends." She waited a moment before adding, "Come on. I'll take you to meet her."

"Um, alright, but first, uh, do you possibly have a brush I could borrow?"

She nodded. "Sure."

She led me back into her room, and over to the dresser in the far corner. Sitting on top of it was a small, pink brush. She picked it up and handed it to me. "Here ya go."

I took it, and replied, "Thank you."

Kairi left the room to go do who knows what while I went to work brushing the white, stringy mess that was my hair. I didn't have something to pull it back into a ponytail with this time so it just hung there.

Kairi was waiting patiently for me on one of the couches when I finished.

"Ready?" She asked politely.

"Yeah."

She stood up and walked to the door.

The sun was shining so brightly, I actually wondered for a moment if it ever rained here.

But there wouldn't be all these trees if it didn't. Still…

Selphie's house wasn't but a short walk from Kairi's, and it was she who knocked on the front door.

Seconds passed, and then a skinny girl with brown hair and vivid green eyes answered the door.

"Kairi?"

"Hello again. I brought Luna. I wanted her to meet you."

"Oh, right! The girl you told me about," She looked my way, "Hi! I'm Selphie."

"I'm Luna, but I guess you already know that."

Selphie smiled, but her happy expression changed quickly changed to one of shock.

"Luna, you- your feet…" She trailed off, but I already knew what she was talking about.

My heart skipped a beat and I started to panic. I had forgotten that no one else was supposed to know about this. How stupid of me!

Kairi quickly stepped in front me, and said, "Can we come in?" in that cheery voice of hers.

However, I knew exactly what she was doing, and didn't hesitate to drop the few inches I had been hovering above the ground, giving myself the appearance that I was standing.

"Yeah, but what about…" Selphie said, her eyes pointing at me.

Kairi stepped back out from in front of me, looked at my feet, and said, "What?" as if she didn't know what Selphie was talking about. She was really good at acting.

Selphie looked down, probably trying to figure out what she had just seen. "Um, nothing." Then she turned, and walked into the house.

Now maybe it was just me, but Selphie's house looked _exactly_ like Kairi's, just set up differently. The couches formed a triangle in the middle of the large room, the table sat in the kitchen, which was off to the side, and all the family pictures were hanging above the fireplace on the other side of the room. Everything was all the same. Weird.

Kairi and Selphie each took their own couch, which meant that I was to take the only one left available. The only question was how to get over there. I couldn't very well fly over there. Not without raising Selphie's suspicions any more than they already were.

"Luna, aren't you coming?" asked Selphie.

I looked to Kairi for help. She didn't know what I should do either.

Gulping, I did the only thing I could think to do. I took a step forward. I shut my eyes, bracing myself for the impact with the floor.

Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes to see that I was still standing. The two girls on the couches were looking at me very strangely, though I figured that Kairi's was for a slightly different reason than Selphie's.

I released the breath I had been holding, and collected my thoughts before taking another step. Why wasn't I falling?

I placed a hand over the Starlite. The warmth of the energy flowing from it told me that it was still active.

So…this couldn't really be called walking, could it?

Whatever. I only needed it to get me around.

A few steps later, I sat on the empty couch. I ignored the stares from the girls across me.

"So, um…" I didn't know what to say. I wasn't a conversationalist like Kairi.

The awkward silence continued for a few more seconds.

"What's up, you guys?" The confusion on Selphie's face was gone, now replaced with childlike enthusiasm.

"You want to hang out today?" Kairi asked her.

"Sure!" Selphie answered.

Kairi smiled. "Great!" She turned to me now, "Luna?"

"What are we doing?"

"Hm, I don't know."

I inwardly sighed. Nobody here seemed to be big on planning.

"Why don't we go out to the island?" Selphie suggested.

"Okay." Kairi agreed.

"But don't we need to go get the boys?" I asked.

"Yeah! Tidus said he'd teach me how to play he and Wakka's game!" Selphie said.

"Who?" Those hadn't been the boys I was talking about.

"Aw, come on, Selphie, it'll be fun, just the three of us!" Kairi responded.

Selphie instantly saddened a little. Was a game really that important?

"Well…alright." She finally answered.

"Don't worry, we'll find something else to do." I tried encouraging her.

She smiled at me, and nodded.

Kairi giggled. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

* * *

After walking down to the shore, figuring out how to keep the boat from sinking with three of us in it (I simply kept myself a couple millimeters above the seat), and rowing out towards the island the kids here apparently spent so much time on, we were now dragging the little wooden vessel up the beach, just enough so that it wouldn't float out to sea.

"Great…so…now what?" I asked between breaths. The other girls might have been used to pulling boats, but I certainly wasn't. Not yet, at least.

We all sat down before Kairi answered me. "I was wondering if you ever remembered how to make those dream catchers you told us about."

I shook my head. "Sorry, I don't. My brother was the one who taught me. If he were here, I bet he'd-" I cut myself off. I could feel tears start to form in my eyes. I quickly blinked them away. It had been a while since I last really thought about him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Kairi apologized.

I shook my head again. "No, no, it's okay." I sent her a smile to reassure her.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Selphie asked, looking from one of us, to the other.

"N-nothing. I-it's nothing." It was obvious I was lying, but Selphie didn't seem to notice.

"Well, I'm getting tired of sitting here. I'm gonna go walk around. Want to come?" Selphie asked us.

Kairi and me both nodded, and all three of us stood up.

Selphie started skipping off in the direction of the bridge, while Kairi walked with me.

"How have you been doing that?" she whispered to me.

I looked at her. "Doing what?" I whispered back.

"Walking. I thought you couldn't?" She clearly looked puzzled.

The corners of my mouth turned up a little. I had already forgotten about that.

"I'm not. I'm just moving my legs to make it look like I'm walking."

She still looked confused. "Then why haven't you fallen?"

I picked up the Starlite with my index finger and thumb.

I could tell when the realization hit her.

"Why? Would you like me to fall?" I asked.

We both burst out laughing, and Selphie stopped about ten feet ahead of us, and turned around, looking as lost as ever. That only made us laugh harder.

When we stopped, Kairi looked down at my feet, and said, "It really does look like you're walking."

I tilted my head, smiled, and said, "Thanks."

Much to my surprise, Selphie passed the bridge.

"Where is she going?" I asked Kairi.

She shrugged. "I guess to the other side of the island."

"There's another side?"

She giggled. "Of course!"

Selphie skipped up to a door, opened it, and walked through. Kairi and me followed.

On the other side was another bridge, this one connecting the piece of land we were on to another. There was a tower, or a lookout, or something, past that, and lots of trees below it.

"Woah." I murmured to myself. Kairi, of course, heard.

She giggled some more, and took off after Selphie.

Selphie screamed as Kairi tackled her to the ground.

"Kairi!" She yelled.

I laughed again, and made my way over to them.

"Come on you guys, leave the fighting to the boys!"

Kairi instantly stopped what she was doing, and for a moment, looked as though she was mad at what I said.

"Girls can fight too, ya know…" She said quietly. I didn't know if she had meant for me to hear that or not, but I did. I felt bad. I hadn't meant to hurt her feelings.

"Well, yeah, sure they can. I wasn't saying they couldn't."

We all remained still for a moment.

Kairi shook it off, and looked up at me, smiling again. "It's okay. I shouldn't have gotten like that."

There was that mood changing cycle again. It made things a little weird.

"How about we do something a little less violent, okay?" I said.

"Right." The other two said simultaneously.

I helped both of them up, and we quickly decided to find a shady area to relax.

"Over there." Selphie pointed to a sort of scooped-out hole in the rock wall.

We all agreed, and started that way. We only made a few feet before we ran into trouble. Parts in the bridge were broken.

"Uh, guys…"

They seemed to know what I was talking about, and jumped across the gaps.

I followed in their footsteps, and jumped. If they didn't mind, neither should I.

A few jumps later, we made it to the other side, where the tower was.

They ignored it, and walked around.

We walked through the trees that had been bunched together in one spot, and finally made it to the wall cave.

We had to climb up to get in, and it was indeed cool inside.

"Ah." I said in relief, sliding down the back of the cave until I was sitting on the cold rock.

Selphie and Kairi sat down beside me.

We proceeded to talk the next few hours away. We all had a lot to learn about each other. They each had a lot of questions for me, asking about my life, and my home (Selphie even asked me about the Starlite. Kairi lied for me). I remembered the conversation I had with Kairi that morning.

My smile disappeared, thinking again about what it would be like to just show up somewhere, having no idea where I had come from.

Both girls noticed my mood change.

"What's wrong, Luna?" Kairi asked me.

"This morning you told me you don't know where your real home is. That's got to be hard. It would be for me."

She gave me this sad smile, just like the one in that picture.

"My home is here, with all my friends."

"But don't you ever wonder about it?"

She nodded slowly. "Sometimes." Then she reached into the little black bag on her waist, and pulled something out. A picture. She handed it to me. Selphie looked over my shoulder to see it too.

"It's me when I was born. It's the only picture I have of my original home."

The picture was a close-up of a woman holding a baby that had short, red hair. There were structures built of wood and stone. The streets were made of stone as well. The woman -Kairi's mother?- was leaning against a tree, smiling warmly down at the little girl in her arms. The background was blurry as it was focused mainly on Kairi, but there was family of three in the distance, their backs to the camera. A man had one arm wrapped around the shoulders of the woman next to him, and the other arm down, holding the hand of a small child with dark hair.

At the back of my mind I heard laughter. I stared at the picture until my eyes hurt from being open too long. I blinked a few times, shaking off the weird feeling the picture gave me.

"Is this your mother?" I asked Kairi.

She nodded.

"Wow, Kairi. You've never showed me this picture before." Selphie said.

"I try not to think about it, but I keep picture with me all the time." Kairi explained, pulling her legs up to her chest. There was that distant look in her eyes again.

Maybe it was time to change the subject.

All of a sudden, something jumped up in front of us. We all screamed.

Sora fell to the ground laughing.

"Sora!" It was a group yell.

"You nearly gave us heart attacks!" Kairi continued, crawling over and playfully smacking him.

"Yeah, Sora, that was really mean!" Selphie joined in with the smacking.

My heart was still racing from the scare when I saw Riku walk over and climb up into the cave with the rest of us. Two other boys followed him.

"I tried to stop him." Riku told us.

"Y-you should've seen your f-faces!" Sora was still lying facedown, laughing hard. Kairi and Selphie had let up on the slapping.

I rolled my eyes, and looked at the two boys I hadn't met yet.

One of them had sandy brown hair, spiked out similar to Sora's. His attention was on the ball he kept throwing up in the air and catching. The other was taller, obviously older, and had vibrant orange hair that stuck up in the front. He actually noticed me looking.

"Hey. You must be the new girl." he said.

"Yeah, I'm Luna."

"The name's Wakka."

"Nice to meet you." So this was Wakka. "Then you must be Tidus." I said to the other boy.

He caught his ball one final time before looking at me and saying, "That's right. You said your name's Luna, right?"

"Yeah."

He nodded, and went back to his ball catching.

I turned to Riku. "So when did you get here?"

"A little while ago."

"We went to Kairi's house, but no one was there. So we got the only boats left and followed you out here." Sora said. He was sitting up now.

"Took us a while to find you. But when we did, Sora decided he'd like to make a grand entrance." Riku explained.

Sora gave us this ridiculous smile. I laughed. It felt awesome to have friends. Even the ones who scare you half to death.

* * *

Chapter Six complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	7. Chapter Seven

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Seven

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

When I woke up the following morning, I could hear the waves crashing against the shore.

I yawned, and slowly sat up. The sun was too bright. I sat for a moment on the sandy floor, waiting for my eyes to adjust to light.

A pile of charred sticks sat beside me.

Slowly I started to remember why I was here.

Kairi, Selphie, Sora, Riku, Tidus, Wakka, and I goofed around for hours after we had all gathered together in the mini cave.

When the sun began to set, and no one really wanted to leave, we decided to just camp out here on the island.

Riku and Sora built a fire, and then we goofed around some more. Selphie even got Tidus to teach her that game. There was hardly a moment when all seven of us were quiet. Eventually night came, and one by one, we all fell asleep.

When I looked around, I saw that no one was there. Had I really been the last one to wake up?

Sora came running up and stopped in front of me.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"We were getting ready to go back home. We just had to wait for you to wake up."

"Oh…" Of course that made me feel a little bad. I didn't want to be the one holding them up.

"Don't worry about it, though. We know how to entertain ourselves. We've had plenty of practice."

I stood up, brushing some sand off me.

"By the way, Kairi told us about that," he said.

I gave him a confused look. "About what?"

Then it clicked. "Oh, the walking."

He nodded. "Yeah. Smart thinking."

I smiled. "Thanks."

Ending that conversation, we made our way to the rest of the group, on the front side of the island. They were waiting by the boats.

"Hi, guys. Sorry for taking so long. I don't know how you get up so early."

My joke earned a few laughs from some of them. Riku, however, said, "It's not that early. It should be at least nine o' clock." He sounded just like Ciro. It made me smile.

"Well let's get going. I could really use some food right now," Tidus spoke up.

"Yeah," Selphie agreed.

We were only able to take a few steps before a voice stopped us.

"Wait!" Everyone turned to Kairi who had just yelled out. "I want to take a picture of all of before we leave!" she announced. She had her hands clasped together in front of as if praying that we would agree to let her do so.  
Sora shrugged. "Sounds good to me. What do you say everyone?"

Selphie and I were the next to speak up, soon followed by Wakka and Tidus. A couple minutes later, we convinced Riku.

"Great!" Kairi was practically jumping with joy. However, she ran off to a large rock nearby. She crouched down, reached into that little, black purse of hers, and pulled out a camera. She played with it for a few moments before running back to us shouting, "Get ready, everyone!"

We all hurried to get into place. I ended up between Sora and Selphie. Selphie put her arm around my shoulder, and I did the same, using my other arm to make a peace sign. I put on my biggest and best smile.

_Snap._ The camera flashed.

Kairi left her place, and went and got the camera. We crowded around her to see how the picture had come out. On the LCD screen of the small, digital camera was us. Starting on the left was Tidus, Sora, me, Selphie, Riku, Kairi, and Wakka. I chuckled. As it turned out, Selphie had copied my peace sign move. Tidus was standing with a simple grin, holding his ball under one arm. Sora had managed to pack a bunch of energy into his smile- that was the only way I could think to describe it. Riku just had his arms crossed in front of him with a smirk on his face. Kairi, much like Sora, looked like she was going to explode with energy, but still appeared calm and collected. Lastly, Wakka was turned slightly to the side holding a thumbs-up.

I felt tears form in my eyes. I wiped them away before anyone could ask what was wrong. Not that anything _was _wrong; I just wanted to enjoy this moment without any interruptions. I couldn't remember the last time I felt this happy.

The first week of my new life was almost over. _Just the beginning._ I thought to myself. _It's just the beginning.

* * *

_

"One month," I said.

Three heads turned to face me. We were sitting on the Paopu tree, as I had learned it's proper name. "What?" the girl asked me.

I looked at her. "It's been exactly one month since I got here."

"Really? Wow." Her red hair was swaying with the light breeze.

I found it hard to believe, too. The days seemed so short now. I'd wake up, hang out with my friends, and before I knew it, I'd have to go back to sleep. Kairi even got me an actual bed to sleep in, too. We'd had to rearrange her room for hours, trying to figure out how to make a one-person bedroom fit two girls. When we finished, I hugged her so tight, I doubted she could breathe. She said it was no big deal, that she enjoyed having a sister-like roommate. But it _was_ a big deal. For me. The next day, Sora and Riku confessed that Kairi had dragged them along to help her pick a bed out. I didn't know how I had ended up with the best friends that I had. It had been an accident from the beginning. Horrible circumstances were what led to my arrival here on Destiny Islands. And of course, I still thought about Ciro every now and then, and sometimes even cried, but I knew that this was the life that he wanted me to have. And I just knew in my heart that he was safe.

"Geez, Luna, has it really been that long?" Sora suddenly asked.

I snapped back to reality, about to answer his question, when Riku said, "Where have you been?"

Sora stuck his tongue out in reply.

"Aw, come on Riku, don't be mean! I was just thinking the same thing," I told him.

Kairi laughed. "It's nice to have someone else to keep you two in order."

"Strength in numbers," I agreed, "They'll learn one day."

"Hey!" Sora shouted at us. Everyone but Sora laughed.

Kairi pushed him so hard, he almost fell off the tree. "We're just teasing."

Sora pushed her back. Kairi got mad, and pushed him so that he _did_ fall off. "Don't push girls!" she lectured.

He got back up, grabbed her hand, and said, "Well then can I pull?" before pulling her off onto the ground with him. She screamed as he jerked her. The two started to push each some more. I got the feeling Sora could push harder than he actually was.

Riku sighed from beside me, and jumped down in between Kairi and Sora. "Break it up before somebody gets hurt!"

"I am hurt!" Sora complained.

I laughed loudly. "I thought you were the powerful Keyblade Master," I said.

"Don't encourage him; he'll come after you next," Kairi warned me.

"Yeah," Sora said before lunging to push me off as well.

I screamed, quickly lifted my feet onto the tree, and pushed off into the air, barely dodging Sora's attack.

"Hey, no fair!" he shouted at me.

I flew as fast as I could away from them, and landed in front of the door to the back of the island. I turned to see Sora gaining on me, then went back to my escape.

When I burst through the next door, however, I instantly stopped. My eyes went wide, and I stopped breathing. _No…_

"Hello, Luna. Did you miss me?" Two gray-black eyes glared at me. There was more venom in his voice than in a snake's bite.

My first instinct was to run, but then I just wanted to scream at him, not that I could make my mouth move.

When I didn't answer his first question, he asked, "No? Well what about your brother? Do you miss him?"

_What?_

Just then, Sora appeared beside me. "Ha! Got-" He cut himself off when he noticed the man standing in front of us. "Who are you?" He sounded cautious.

"You mean you haven't told your friend about me?" the man asked me.

"That doesn't answer my question." Sora said, voice firm.

"I'm not any of your concern. Hand over the girl, and I'll leave," he shot back.

I gasped. So many half-formed thoughts were running through my head right then, I couldn't sort any of them out. I just stood there, frozen in fear.

"Not a chance!" Suddenly, a flash of bright light came from where Sora was standing. I looked at him. In his hands was a weapon of some sort. It was shaped similar to a key, but much bigger.

"The Keyblade." The man in black said. I looked to him, then back to the weapon. This was the Keyblade?

I heard the door open again. I heard Riku and Kairi laughing.

Kairi's laughter stopped. "What's going on?"

"I-it's him." I told them, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Who?" Kairi asked.

"The guy she told us about, the one who took her brother." Riku was the one to figure it out. Somehow, that didn't surprise me.

I nodded my head slightly in confirmation.

The man narrowed his eyes at us. "You three weren't on my agenda."

Another flash of light. This time from Riku's direction.

When I looked at him, I saw that he was also holding a weapon. He stepped to the other side of me.

"Another one?" the man asked himself.

Another what? Keyblade? This one didn't look at all like Sora's.

I turned my head back to the front to see the man's reaction.

His eyes were wide. Could he have actually been afraid?

An eternity passed before anything else was said. What was he doing?

"Ya know, Luna, you've proved to be very difficult to track. It's taken a month just to figure out where you landed," the man said. He seemed to have regained his composure.

"You're not taking her." Riku said.

The man's eyes narrowed to slits. More horrible silence.

"Where's Ciro?" I asked him. My voice cracked.

He looked at me now. "So I take it you do miss him?"

"Where is he?" I screamed. Everyone beside me flinched. The man didn't move.

"Do you want to see him again?" he asked.

I stepped forward. "Yes." I said, more calmly this time.

"Then I have a proposition for you. Are you willing to listen?"

I waited a moment, then nodded.

"Luna, are you sure that's a good idea?" Sora's voice came from behind me.

"I already told you this is none of your concern."

Sora said nothing else.

"Now, I didn't come here to talk; I came here to get you. But plans change. So here's the deal. First, though…"

He lifted his hand into the air, and a blue light shot out from it. It formed a dome big enough for him, and me, but blocked the remaining three out.

I looked up with a panicked expression on my face. "What is this?"

"It should give us some privacy."

I could feel the anger starting to form inside me. I looked him straight in the eye. "You're afraid of their Keyblades, aren't you?"

"I'm not afraid. But I'm not stupid either. Now, to get back on subject."

I clenched my hands. His attitude was really getting on my nerves.

"Ciro is alive," he said.

Then my hands, arms, and everything else went limp, but only for a moment. He was alive? Really? If I had been in any other situation, I would've started crying out of relief. But as it was, I had to force myself just to stand up.

"He is?" I asked him.

He nodded, then said, "Yes, I'm keeping him nice and safe, so don't you worry about him. What I need you to focus on is the Starlite." He pointed to it.

I wrapped a protective hand around the little, black star. "What do you mean?"

"That necklace has a very unique power deep inside it, one that I want you to unlock."

"And if I don't?"

He sent another evil glare my way. "Then don't count on ever seeing your brother again."

I used the next few minutes of silence to think. When his threat finally made sense to me, I asked, "How do I unlock the Starlite's power'?"

"I can't tell you that, and even if I could, I wouldn't. A game's no fun without a challenge."

"Game?" I didn't like where this was going…

"Correct. I am giving you one week to figure it out. No more, no less."

"What? But that's not fair! I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"Then I suggest you start thinking. The countdown starts now."

And with that, he lifted a hand above his head, and the dome around us disappeared, taking the man in black with it.

I fell to my knees, and just stared out into space. My head felt light. I didn't even notice when Kairi started shaking my shoulders. I could barely hear Sora and Riku when they started talking. And the island scene in front of me was slowly turning black. They were all fading, fading, fading…

And then they were gone.

* * *

My head was resting against one of the metal walls. My legs were pulled up against me, and my arms were wrapped around them. My eyes were closed, but I wasn't sleeping. Being locked up in a cage for a month was driving me insane. The only thing I thought about anymore was Luna and how she was doing…if she was even okay. The only peace I got came from sleep. And the only thing I could do was sit.

Muffled voices argued and yelled above me. Even if I tried listening, I wouldn't be able to understand what was being said, so I ignored it. It didn't matter, and I didn't care.

Then a door opened, "I had to! I couldn't fight two of them! Just give it a few days. This will work," and slammed shut. I heard the footsteps of someone obviously angry make their way down the stairs to the basement I was locked in. I looked up to see my one and only visitor. I scowled at him. "How long do you plan on keeping me down here?" I said, in no mood for the sarcastic attitude I knew I was going to receive.

"You're in luck, it might not be much longer."

I sat up straight. "What?"

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out."

"Does it have anything to do with the fight I just heard?" I tried my best to cover my curiosity with seriousness.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "How much of that did you hear?"

"So it was. Who were you even arguing with?"

"Do you really think it's a good idea to interrogate me? Push me and might just decide to kill you now."

"Were you waiting for something?" I wasn't scared of his threat; there was no point. He'd kill me regardless of what I said or did. But something was holding him back, and I knew it.

He took in a deep breath, and let it out before saying, "I made a deal not to slice your head off yet, if you must know." I could tell he was choosing his words carefully, as if trying not give something away.

"What deal?"

"What did I say about the interrogations?" he said, irritated.

I kept quiet, not really satisfied with what I'd learned. But then again, what had I learned? That I wasn't going to die yet?

"Ya know, you're a lot like that sister of yours. You both ask too many questions," the man said.

I focused on him again. Black hair fell down to his narrowed eyes. If I had to guess, I'd say he was smirking underneath his bandana. An evil, little smirk that would suggest he was enjoying tormenting me.

I failed to hide the shocked expression I was feeleing. Luna? I continued to stay quiet. I didn't know what to say anyway.

"What? No comeback? Surely you have something to say."

I didn't.

"No? Well then perhaps I'll just leave then. These talks of ours aren't as fun anymore."

He started to leave.

"Why are you doing this?" I heard myself ask him involuntarily. I probably should have just let him leave, but it was too late now. He turned back around.

"Excuse me? You know what I want," he said as if I had just asked the stupidest question he'd ever heard.

"But I don't know why."

"Isn't it obvious? I want power."

"Don't you care at all about the people you've hurt thus far?"

"Should I?"

"Of course you should."

"Well then that's too bad."

"All I want you to do is leave Luna alone. Do whatever you want to me, just don't hurt her," I pleaded with him.

"But that's not going to get me anywhere. I need you alive so that she'll come to us."

"You still think that's going to work? Face it, it's been a month. She's not coming!"

"Oh, I think she will."

"And why's that?"

"Nero! Come here!" a voice shouted from the floor above us, not giving the man a chance to answer.

"I have to go," the man said, staring at the ceiling.

I didn't bother to say anything this time. He climbed the stairs back up to whence he came

Someone else _was_ here. But who?

The fight from earlier resumed. What could they be talking about?

"Nero…" I said to myself. That must have been his name. Despite the situation I was in, I chuckled. One of my questions was finally answered. "And it only took twelve years."

* * *

Chapter Seven complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	8. Chapter Eight

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Eight

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

* * *

_

"Is she awake yet?"

"No."

"Are you sure she's not hurt?"

"Yes."

"Then why hasn't she woken up yet?"

"Kairi, calm down. She's gonna be okay."

A girl sighed. "I know. I just can't imagine how she's going to feel."

I could hear the conversation taking place. Did that mean I was awake? No…Well, maybe. I felt like I was standing on the line between consciousness and unconsciousness. I wanted desperately to fall back into the clutches of sleep, but I knew I should probably get up. Forcing my eyes to open, the first thing I saw was a shadowy figure standing above me. When I focused on it, what I saw made my stomach clench, and a scream caught in my throat. Familiar black eyes stared straight at me. I blinked hard, hoping it was only a dream, and the scene changed. Instead of dark eyes, there were piercing orange-red eyes. Ciro? No, that was impossible…wasn't it?

My vision blurred for a moment. I focused on the eyes watching me; looking down on me. And then they changed again. Now they were a turquoise color. And there was silver hair hanging down in them.

I suddenly felt sick. Why was my mind playing these horrible tricks on me?

"Luna, are you alright?" Riku asked me.

I pushed myself upright on the bed I was on. My bed. I was in our room? One of them must have brought me here from…the island.

Dizziness washed over me, and I groaned, holding a hand against my head. It hurt.

"Here," Kairi said, then handed me an ice pack, "You hit your head."

I took it from her, and held it to my head. "Thanks," I muttered.

"You're welcome. Is there anything else you need?" There was a worried expression on her face.

I shook my head, which only made it hurt more. I groaned again.

"Do you remember what happened?" Riku asked.

I turned my gaze downward, and let my hand fall into my lap. "Yeah."

"Do you want to talk about it?" he continued.

"No…"

"Okay, we understand. Just know that you ca-"

"But, I think I should." I said, interrupting him.

He and Kairi just stared at me, each with their own look of concern.

I looked around, and noticed someone missing from the usual trio. "Where's Sora?"

"He went to his house for something a little while ago." Kairi answered.

"Oh."

"Do you want to wait for him to get back?"

"Yes. He needs to hear this too." I just felt more comfortable telling them this if they were all together. I didn't know why. Maybe it was because that was how I told them the first time, on my first day here.

Silence reigned the next few minutes. I rotated my body and leaned up against the wall my bed was beside, and pulled my legs up to my chest. The one time I looked to Kairi and Riku, who were standing around, they looked deep in thought about something. I was trying to keep my mind off of what I was going to have to tell them.

Then Sora burst through the door, making me jump.

"Okay, I'm back. Is Luna still asleep?" he asked before turning to face me.

I gave him a half-hearted smile, and said, "Hi."

"Hi," he said back, relief washing over his features, "How do you feel?"

"Sick," I told him honestly.

"Sora, she said she has something to tell us," Kairi whispered to him, but I still heard.

"Right. I want to tell you what happened out there."

His eyes widened a little. "Are you sure?"

I nodded once.

"Well, we're listening," Riku said.

I opened my mouth, paused, then continued. "He has my brother. And he said he'd give him back to me if I…if I unlock the Starlite's power." I told them, not looking at any of them directly.

"What?" Kairi sounded shocked.

"What does that mean?" Sora asked next.

"I-I don't know." I wiped away the tear that fell from my eye.

"Where is he keeping your brother?" Riku asked.

I bit my lip. "I don't know. But I only have one week to figure it out."

The last part caught everyone's attention, as they all looked at me more intently than before.

Before any of them could say anything, I said, "I know. What am I supposed to do? He didn't give me any sort of hint or clue as to what this mysterious power is, or how to 'unlock' it. And I just don't know what to do," more tears ran down my face, "But hey, at least I know Ciro's alive." I tried to smile, but failed, and let my head fall.

Kairi got up and sat on the bed next to me, trying to comfort me.

"So this isn't what I thought." Riku said.

I looked at him. "What?" I asked, pushing some of the bangs out of my face.

"I thought this person was just after you. But I was wrong. It's the Starlite he wants."

I thought back to that day Ciro had given the necklace to me. He had seemed to be in such a hurry to find it, and get me somewhere safe. But maybe that wasn't it. Maybe it was the Starlite he wanted safe. But then, why did he give to me? Of course that question was easy. "Because he wanted to protect me," I continued out loud.

"Huh?" Kairi asked, confused.

I ignored her as another thought had entered my mind. Why did he tell _me_ to unlock its power? Why didn't he just take it, and do so? A moment later, that answer was also obivous. He was scared of the Keyblade. Whatever power he had was no match for Sora and Riku's weapons, so he couldn't just grab it from me without being attacked.

I groaned yet again. My head was starting to hurt from the thinking alone.

"So have you figured out what you're going to do?" Sora asked me.

I closed my eyes. "No. I probably should though. I don't have any more time to waste."

"But where do you even start?"

I shrugged, and reopened my eyes. "I guess I have to do it the same way I figured out all the other stuff about it. He made it sound like I'd know what the power is when I found it."

"Right…what is it you did again?"

"Ciro told me that I needed to concentrate on it's energy, so that I can connect with it. Now it seems that it knows what I'm thinking and what I want…or what I need."

"And that's how you got here, right?" Riku asked.

I nodded to him, remembering the voyage through space.

"So this means you _are _going to go looking for him?" Kairi asked.

"I have to. I can't just let him die. He's my brother," I answered, wiping away more tears.

"Do you have any idea where he might be?"

"No, I really don't. I guess I'll just have to start somewhere and figure out the next step then."

"Great. So where should we start?" Sora said, casually throwing his arms behind his head.

I blinked a couple of times, wondering if I had heard him correctly. "What? We?"

"Of course. You didn't think we were gonna let you go alone, did you?" he asked.

"Well, um, yeah, kinda. This is my responsibility, not yours. You don't have to come with me."

He shrugged, then smiled. "We're always happy to help a friend in need. And in your situation, it definitely looks like you could use some help."

I doubted he meant that to be mean, but I still took it a little offensively.

"What makes you so sure I can't do this?" I asked in all seriousness.

He looked taken aback. "It's not that, but Luna, this guy didn't even attack you, and you passed out. What are you going to do if he _does_ try to hurt you?"

I quickly looked away, knowing that I couldn't answer. I honestly didn't know what I'd do. I'd only thought as far as getting off this island. Maybe they had a point…

"And did you notice that he backed off when Sora and I summoned our Keyblades? I think you'd be safer just by having us around," Riku chimed in. I looked at him, then Sora, then Riku again. They really didn't understand, did they?

"But did it ever occur to you that _you _could get hurt? I-I'd never be able to forgive myself if that happened." I felt even more tears start to form- where were they all coming from?-, and buried my face in my knees once more. Kairi rested her hand on my back as I cried.

"Luna, I know this has to be hard, but…please, let us come. We'll be fine," she said in a soft voice.

I thought about the day they told me their story. They had been put in dangerous situations more than once, risked everything, finally got back home, and _still_ wanted to help me. I slowly pulled my head back up.

"Kairi?" Sora asked.

"Hm?" she said with a smile on her face.

"I, uh, I think you should stay here."

The smile fell. "What? Why?"

"Because…you're just…it's not…" He sighed.

Kairi hopped up off the bed and stood in front of him.

"Sora, I want to help, too. And I'll be all right. You know that," she said confidently.

"I think she should come. We can look after her better if she's with us," Riku said, with a teasing smirk.

"I agree. I can't talk to either of you about clothes or hair," I said to the two boys, causing Kairi to turn around with an excited look on her face.

"Does this mean you're letting us come?" she asked in voice that matched her expression.

I took a breath, forced a smile, and said, "Yeah. This is gonna be hard…And I'm gonna need help. And I want my three best friends to help me. So what do you say?"

Sora shook off his uneasiness about Kairi coming along, and said, "We're in."

A real smile started to break through the fake one. "Thanks, you guys."

"I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but now that this has been decided, we need to start thinking about leaving, and soon. We only have a week, right?" Riku said, changing the subject to something we actually needed to talk about

I nodded. "Right. Can we be ready to go in a couple of hours?"

"Woah, that's really soon," Sora said.

I gave him a begging sort of look, complete with the pouty lip and big eyes.

He scratched the back of his head in thought for a moment, then said, "Couple hours sounds good," in defeat.

I smiled proudly, having gotten my way. I rested my head against the wall behind me and looked out the window a few feet away. The sun was shining directly through it. As bright as it was, I found that it really didn't bother me. It was actually…comforting. It reminded me of my brother in a weird way. I closed my eyes and made a wish on it. The sun's a star, after all…

_Ciro, wherever you are, know that I'm on my way._

_

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_

Chapter Eight complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	9. Chapter Nine

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Nine

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

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_

_But where do we go first? He could be anywhere. Do we just take a guess? Does it even matter? That man's not going to let Ciro go unless we give him what he wants. But how do you work a magic necklace? Magic. Is that it? Is this some magic power? Well of course it is. No other necklace can make you fly. At least none that I know of. Then again, I never knew about this one…_

I wrapped my hand around the Starlite. I tended to do that when I was thinking.

_But where would we even go?_

However, at that moment, I wasn't making much progress.

I laid back on the roof, shielding my eyes from the sun with an arm. Yes, I was sitting on a roof- Kairi's roof. Why was I sitting on her roof? I had no idea. We'd agreed to meet back in Kairi's house to discuss our plan of departure. So while everyone else left to get ready or whatever, I decided to find a quiet place to think. Thus, the roof.

_Why does this have to be so hard?_

I hated having all these questions I couldn't answer. It felt like that was all I had really done this entire time: ask questions.

_Well ya know what, it's time to get some answers._

I stood up, and hopped my way back down to the ground. I landed in front of the door just as it was opening. Kairi stepped out, looking surprised.

"Oh, hey, I was just coming to look for you. Where have you been?" she asked.

'On your roof."

Obviously she took this as a strange answer, and I laughed at the look on her face. "Do you know when Sora and Riku will be getting back?"

She shook her head. "No, but let's go back inside and wait for them. They should be back soon."

"Okay." I followed her inside, and sat on one of the couches in the living room. Kairi did the same. We talked for a while about random things, like what color we'd dye our hair if we could. Kairi said that she liked her hair just the way it was.

"Umm, to tell you the truth, I'd probably dye mine pink," was my answer.

She looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, then said, "I can't see it. I don't think you'd look right without white hair."

"Then I think I'll keep it this way," I told her with a smile.

_Knock, knock._

Both of our heads turned to the front door. Kairi got up to answer it, and Sora and Riku strolled in.

"Well it's about time. What have you two been doing?" I asked them.

"Probably taking a nap," Kairi responded, sarcastically.

"Nuh uh! We got hungry, and went down to that diner," Sora shot back in a childish voice. Typical Sora.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Now that you're here, we need to figure out how to get off this island. Any ideas?"

The two boys, along with Kairi, made their way to the couches, and appeared to be thinking. Sora was the first to say something. "Well there's always the Gummi Ship."

"The what?" I asked.

"It's what Donald, Goofy, and I used to travel between worlds. But wait, they took it back home with them."

"Which means that we have no way of using it," Riku finished for him.

"Great, so that idea's a bust…unless…do you know where they live?" I asked, sitting up straighter.

Sora nodded.

"Then maybe I can go get it, and bring it back so that we can all leave together." It was only after I said it that I realized how many flaws there were in that plan. When I saw Riku shake his head, I said,"Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. It's not a good idea, so just nevermind."

And then we went back to thinking…and thinking…and even more thinking…and after what seemed to be an eternity of thinking, Kairi spoke up.

"Luna, you can use the Starlite to fly."

"Yeah…" I didn't know where she was headed with this.

"Do you know if more than one can use it to do the same thing at the same time?"

Oh. "I don't think so, no."

"Can you try?"

I sighed. "When Ciro gave me this, he told me he wasn't going to be able to come with me. If he had been, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place."

"Maybe he just didn't know. All we can do is try."

I didn't answer that time.

"She's right. As we learned earlier, there's a lot you don't know about the Starlite. This could be one of those things. And the longer we take here, the shorter the amount of time we have to look for your brother. So just give her idea a chance," Riku suddenly said.

"Fine," I said quietly.

Once again, I took hold of the Starlite. _Can you work on all of us?_ I silently asked it.

_Unity._

I let it go, startled by the voice that had entered my head. I had forgotten all about that…

"What is it?" one of the others asked, probably to my seemingly random reaction. I ignored them, instead focusing on the Statlite again. _What do you mean?_

_Unity._

The same answer. The same useless, one-worded answer. I fell back against the couch, not knowing what to do. It looked like it would be another dead end. As I stared at the ceiling, I said, "I asked, and all it would tell me is 'unity'."

"What does that mean?" Sora asked.

"To be one," Riku murmured in thought.

"One," I repeated after him.

"Well what does that have to do with anything? Luna, are you sure that's what it said?" Sora continued.

"Yeah, but I don't get it. How do you 'be one'?"

"Maybe it means you're supposed to be_come _one," Riku suggested.

The image of a circle flashed through my mind, and in front of my eyes. For that moment, all I could see was a white background and a circle being drawn on it. "To become one," I heard myself say. It suddenly made sense- I knew what we were supposed to do. I sat back up quickly, and stared each one of my friends in the eye, the last of which was Riku. I reached an arm out to him, and said, "Take my hand."

He looked confused, but did what he was told, and took my hand in his. I smiled, then looked to Sora. "You too." I extended my other arm towards him, and he took that hand. The circle was almost complete. "Kairi." I glanced pointedly at Riku and Sora, took each boy's hand.

"What are we doing?" Kairi asked me.

"Uniting."

I concentrated on the Starlite, letting the energy fill me with its familiar warmth. This time I knew where it was I wanted to go, and wouldn't have any problem getting there. My skin began to glow, and I slowly rose into the air. But before I went any further, I stopped to ask the others a question. "You guys ready?"

The each nodded in response.

I raised one corner of my mouth, and said, "Then let's go."

I closed my eyes, and resumed my focus. I felt ghost like- transparent and light. Very light. And so did the three people I was carrying with me.

Seconds passed as I concentrated on moving upwards.

Faster…faster…come on, faster.

I involuntarily tightened my grip on Sora and Riku's hands. Frustration built up inside me, and just when I was about to let go, I felt someone squeeze my hand back. I looked at it, then to the person holding it, Riku. He was smiling. Not the sarcastic smirk he usually wore, but a confident, reassuring smile that told me I could do this.

Being the easily distracted person that I was, I almost made all of us fall by focusing on Riku instead of the Starlite. But I blinked, and switched back before that could happen.

I blocked out everything else around me, and concentrated as hard as I could on moving towards my destination. Our speed was finally picking up.

The sudden change in temperature made me realize that we weren't inside the house anymore, but I didn't dare open my eyes that time for fear of losing focus again. I wanted to wait just a little while longer to be sure that we were moving fast enough. I had people to protect from falling to their deaths.

"Luna!" a muffled voice called.

At least I think they called.

"Luna!" Again, I barely heard it, but I opened my eyes to see Kairi shouting- or atleast trying to- at me.

"What is it?" I asked her, as loudly as I could manage.

"Look!" She pointed down, and I looked in that direction. Her house, along with the rest of Destiny Islands, was disappearing more with every passing second. We had to be a few hundred feet into the air.

I looked back up her. "I know! Hold on tight, we'll be there soon!"

She didn't say anything else after that, nor did the rest of us.

The sky gradually started changing colors, getting darker the further up we went. Stars appeared soon afterwards, then the worlds. Thousands of stars, dozens of worlds, all with their own unique shape and colors.

I smiled. _We're here._

We all came to a sudden halt that even I hadn't been expecting. I screamed as everyone crashed into me. Without giving my next action much thought, I let go of the two hands I had been holding and pushed them away from me. _Then_ I gasped.

"Oh, well, I guess we can let go now," I said, which the others did.

"Wow," Kairi said in a mesmerized voice as she spun around in a little circle, looking at the infinite space.

"This sure brings back memories," Sora said in a similar tone.

I laughed a little until I saw that Riku had turned himself around in isolation. I floated over and put a hand on his shoulder. He flinched, and I quickly pulled away.

"Oh, sorry, I was just…are you okay?" I sort of stuttered.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He turned to face me, "But we should keep moving."

"Right." I was about to turn around too when I remembered something. "I have no idea where to go."

"Ask Sora. He's probably been to most of these places."

"That's…a good idea." Now seriously, why hadn't I thought of that?

He chuckled. "Come on, those two will wander off if we don't watch them."

I laughed again. This was the most I'd really ever talked to Riku just one-on-one. He wasn't as open or energetic as Sora or Kairi, and while I liked hanging out with both of them, sometimes it was nice to have a quiet conversation.

When we rounded everyone together, we started brainstorming…again. Well, Kairi, Riku, and I were anyway. Sora had figured out how to float around lying down, and it had taken a good ten minutes to get him to stop.

"Seriously, Sora, you these worlds better than any of us. Where do you think we should go?" I asked him when he finally settled down.

"You have to give me something to go on first. What do you want to _do_?"

Good question. What _did _I want to do? It would have been pointless to go looking for Ciro then. It wouldn't have gotten us anywhere. So…

"I need to unlock the Starlite's power before we do anything else." Not that I had figured out how to do that yet.

"Then how do you want to start?"

"I…don't know."

"Well what do you know so far?"

"Using this, all I can really do is fly…and swim."

"Then why don't we work on that? It might at least give us another idea later."

It sort of surprised me that Sora had come up with a plan that quickly. That usually wasn't his specialty. However, I decided against saying it out loud.

"But we still don't know where we're going," I pointed out instead.

"Actually, I know a place that would be perfect for learning to fly," Sora continued, smiling. Wow, he was really on a roll.

"Really? Where is it?"

He started looking in every possibly direction for this mystery place.

"Aha! There!" He pointed way off into the distance. What exactly he was pointing at, I wasn't sure.

I squinted. "Uh…"

"I'll show you. Follow me," he said, waving us after him.

"Okay."

Riku had to pull Kairi away from whatever it was she was staring at before we could leave though. She didn't say anything about it, but was strangely quiet the whole way to wherever it was Sora was taking us. I zoned out after about five minutes of silently wandering through space, which turned out to be extremely boring. Why couldn't somebody start a conversation? I inwardly sighed right before I bumped into the person in front of me.

"Gah!" I cried out, startled. I rubbed my nose, seeing that I had hit Sora, who was floating in place. We stopped? Why?

I leaned sideways to see around him, and immediately went wide-eyed. "Whoa."

Before us was a world that had appeared out of nowhere. Or that was how it seemed to me. Again, I hadn't been paying attention. It was a lot bigger than I remembered Destiny Islands looking.

"This is it," Sora said, putting his hands on his hips.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Kairi said, obviously excited. She had told me more than once that she wished she could have been with Sora while he was off saving the worlds. I had to say I was pretty excited too.

I hadn't thought about what I was doing when I took off for it. I still hadn't thought about it when I started flying faster. And by the time all four of us broke the clouds, falling at full speed, I figured it was time to start thinking.

* * *

Chapter Nine complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	10. Chapter Ten

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Ten

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

Plummeting to my death wasn't exactly how I had planned to start this journey. But I needed to form a plan if I didn't want to end up that way, and quick. I scanned the sky around me for my friends to no avail. Where did they go? They couldn't have disappeared…could they? No, they were right behind me.

"Luna!" The voice came from above me, and I looked up to find the three I thought I had lost. A sigh of relief escaped me as I yelled back as loud as I could, "There you are!" though I doubted any of them were able to hear me.

"The Starlite!" Riku shouted back.

For a moment, I was actually confused as to what he was talking about, then it hit me.

_Of course, I'm so stupid!_

I reached for the necklace, which had twisted itself around to the back of my head, closed my eyes, and slowly came to a stop in midair. When had it stopped working anyway? Or, for that matter, why?

Kairi suddenly fell past me, followed by Riku, then Sora, and I remembered that I had other people I needed to save. Fear rushed through me as I realized just how close we were to the ground. I desperately took off after the person closest to me, Sora.

"Take my hand!" I yelled when I neared him. He did so, and I pulled him behind me as I flew towards Riku. He seemed to already know what to do, like always, and took Sora's hand when he saw us.

I locked on to Kairi next. She had dropped quite a few feet below us in the short time it had taken to retrieve the first two. But I still hurried after her, determination hiding the worried look in my eyes.

She turned out to be the hardest to get a hold of. It seemed every time I started catching up to her, she'd just slip further out of my reach.

Come on…

Finally I managed to grab her outstretched hand. She smiled in relief, then opened her mouth to say something, but what came out wasn't her voice. It was a loud, high-pitched scream, like that of a scared, little girl. I flinched, but managed to hold my grip on Kairi.

But then the hand holding her up began to burn. I tried to ignore it, make it go away, but it got worse and worse. So bad, I couldn't bear it anymore, and I was forced to let go. I instinctively clutched it with my other hand, not realizing that also meant letting go of Sora and Riku until after I had done so. All three of them cried out.

Along with the burning pain in my hand, which was rapidly spreading up my arm, my head began to hurt as well. For a moment, I could have sworn there were flames around me. They cracked and raged as I huddled in a corner, crying. Someone called my name from a distance. I stole a glance at the hot fire in hopes of finding someone who could help me. No one. And yet, they called my name again. My eyes shot open, and the pain disappeared at once, as did the illusion.

_What…what _was_ that? _I thought, staring at my hands.

I tensed when the same voice from the nightmare called me again.

_No, wait, that's Riku's voice…_

As soon as it clicked, I flew in their direction, more determined- and scared- as ever. _Oh no_ was the only thought I could fully process, and each time I thought it, it lost a little bit more of its meaning.

Both my arms were stretched out as far as they would go, and I was flying at nearly full speed, so naturally it didn't take all that long to reach Sora. Again. And it only took a few seconds more to reach Riku. Again. Kairi, however, was still a problem. There wasn't much distance left between us and the ground, and therefore, only a few seconds left before…

Well, that was something I really didn't want to think about, so instead I took off yet again. As fast as I was flying- and I was flying fast, the fastest I'd ever gone- I felt like maybe I could go even faster. But I didn't know how, nor did I have the time to worry about it. We were closing in on twenty feet…fifteen…ten…

"No!" I shouted even though there wasn't anything else I could do. She was still out of reach, and yet I kept going. I just couldn't let this happen. I couldn't!

And then, she disappeared in flash of green.

To say I was startled would have been an understatement. I had to slam on invisible brakes to prevent slamming into the grassy rock of an island. I hadn't bothered to look where we were going to land until then. It was a strip of land with drastic elevation changes in the middle of an ocean. Out just a little ways was a lone rock jutting at least twenty feet out of the water.

"Peter!" Sora cried enthusiastically when we finally touched ground.

Who?

"Kairi!" Riku shouted along with him.

I turned around quickly, wondering what had happened to her. A young boy, dressed completely in green, descended in front of us, holding Kairi in his arms. Kairi had her arms wrapped around his neck, but was looking down, obviously shocked. So was I.

"Hey, Sora! Long time, no see!" the boy shouted as he let Kairi down. She immediately walked over to me.

"Luna! Why'd you let go?" She sounded mad, which was understandable.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I-" I got cut off by a little fairy-like creature who suddenly flew up in my face. I screamed, and fell backwards.

"Tink!" the boy in green yelled when he saw me fall. The fairy flew towards him, wings flapping like mad, leaving a trail of glitter behind her.

"Luna, are you okay?" Kairi bent down to help me up.

"Yeah. Are you? I'm really sorry I let go. My hand-" I got cut off again, this time by Sora.

"Hey, Tink!"

Was anybody going to let me finish my sentence?

Kairi walked over to where Sora was talking to the boy. Riku walked over to me.

"So what were you saying? About your hand?" he asked. At least somebody cared.

"I-it started burning. Or at least it felt like it. I don't know. But, I think I was having a nightmare," I explained.

"A nightmare?"

I nodded. "I was trapped inside this room that was on fire. And I was screaming, but no one came to help me. It was weird. It felt so real." I was getting lost in my thoughts again. I shook them away. "But I'm okay now." I smiled up at him. His eyes were narrowed, like he was thinking about something. I didn't know if I should interrupt him or not. I decided not to, and slowly moved away from him to the other group.

"Hey, guys," I said at the first opportunity I got.

"Oh, Luna, this is Peter, and Tinkerbell. They're the ones I thought could help you," Sora said when he noticed me. I looked from him, to the boy- Peter, to the fairy- Tinkerbell.

"Hi, I'm Luna," I told, well, Peter, who was still floating, as cheerily as I could. I didn't really know how to talk to a fairy…

"Nice to meet you. Sora said something about flying?" Peter said back.

"Right, um, we're sort of in a hurry. What exactly do you know? Actually, first of all, where are we?"

"Never Land! Where else?"

Heh, I could have laughed… "Oh, no where, Sora just didn't say anything before we, um, got here."

"Yeah, you guys sure look like you could learn a thing or two, what with that fall. This girl would be pretty hurt right now if it weren't for me." He motioned to Kairi.

"Thank you for saving me, by the way. My name's Kairi," she said in that sugar-sweet voice of hers. Tinkerbell rolled her eyes, and flew away.

"Kairi?" Peter paused, then snapped his fingers. "You're the one Sora used to talk about!"

Kairi turned to Sora. "You talked about me?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Well, yeah. That was back when I was still looking for you. And…" he turned to look at Riku, who hadn't moved from where I'd left him.

"Anyway, Peter, can you help us? Please?" I asked him.

"Sure. We didn't have anything else to do today, anyway. But tell me what's wrong first. And how can I help?"

I looked to Sora and Kairi, who both nodded as signal for me to start.

"Well…"

* * *

Chapter Ten complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

**NOTE: I figured I might as well let you know, this is a short chapter. Obviously. Well, anyway, it's highly likely that from here on out, the chapters to come will be about this long, give or take some. It makes writing these a LOT easier, and it might at least make the updates quicker...maybe...**


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Eleven

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

* * *

_

"You have to keep your arms out, like this," Peter explained to me. Then he did a perfect flip in mid-air. "See?"

I stood- well, floated, I guess- there in front of him, my arms crossed, with a half annoyed, half bored expression on my face. We had done this stupid little trick twelve times now, and I had yet to see the reason for doing so.

Kairi, Sora, and Riku, were sitting on the ground below us, watching as I did flip, after flip, after flip, only to have Master Peter Pan tell me what was wrong with each of them. First I had done it too slow, then too fast. I ended up facing a different way from when I started on one of them. And this time, I had forgotten to keep my arms straight out. So yes, I was a little annoyed.

I knew I shouldn't have been, though. After all, he was just trying to help.

At least, he was _now._

I spent the first twenty minutes trying to summarize everything that had happened up to when we landed here to him. It only took that long because as it turned out, there was someone who got distracted more easily than me. Peter would zone out every couple minutes, and I'd have to catch him up on what he'd missed. Then when I finally got my point across, he tried to take the Starlite right off my neck to "examine it". I slapped him away, not because of how up-in-my-face he was- which he was- but because, well, it was important to me. Until I found Ciro, it was the only thing that I really had left of him.

Anyway, we started flipping practice shortly after that.

"How long are we going to do this?" I asked.

"Until I say stop," was Peter's sarcastic answer.

Oh yes, I was annoyed. But I did his little flip anyway, this time with my arms out. I made sure not to go too slow or too fast, and I finished looking exactly the same way. There, perfect. I smiled.

He waited a moment before saying, "You didn't keep your knees in."

I just looked at him incredulously. He couldn't be serious.

Peter burst but laughing, holding his stomach as he did so.

"Is something funny?" I asked, irritated.

"Y-your face," he struggled to get out.

That was it. That was what finally made me lose my temper.

"Are you going to help me or not?" I demanded. "For the half an hour that I've been here, all you've done is made me mad! If you don't remember, my brother needs me! So I don't have time for your childish games!" And I turned away.

"Fine!" I heard him shout back.

I almost felt bad enough to apologize for being mean, but something inside me told me that stubbornness was a better answer.

"Hey guys, what's the problem?" Sora asked, running up to us.

Peter answered for us. "She doesn't appreciate my help."

I turned back around to face both of them. "That's because you're not helping! Why does it matter if I can do a perfect flip or not? It's not getting me any closer to figuring this thing out!" I held the Starlite out in front of me.

"Luna, calm down," Sora told me.

"Well how can I when this _kid_ doesn't take anything seriously?"

"I was just trying to have fun!"

"Fun isn't going to save Ciro!"

We just stared at each other for a few seconds, both of us angry. Sora didn't look like he knew what to do, and just stood there.

Suddenly, I didn't feel mad anymore. All the energy just drained out of me, and I felt…tired. My face softened, and I fell to the ground, my head down.

Tears started to slip down my face. I didn't know where they were coming from, or why they were there- because I certainly didn't want to be crying right then. And yet, there I was, sitting awkwardly on my knees, eyes closed while the tears fell at their own will.

Sora knelt down beside me. "Luna," he said softly, as if not to disturb my crying.

I shifted so that my hair would fall and hide my face. I was too tired to do any more talking. But I thought there was at least one thing I should say.

I tilted my head up slowly. Peter was hovering in front of me. "I'm sorry," I told him. "I'm just a little stressed. I shouldn't have yelled like that."

His expression remained unchanged for a while, and when he finally opened his mouth to speak, I thought he was going to deny my apology. But then he started laughing again. "Aw, that's okay, no need to be sorry."

I sort of expected him to apologize for wasting my time, but seconds passed and I realized that he wasn't going to. I sighed.

I still felt very heavy, and honestly, I wanted nothing more than to take a nap. I probably could have too. All I'd have to do is close my eyes…

"Luna! Sora!"

My eyes snapped back open at the sound of Kairi's voice. I looked to the direction from which it came, as did Sora.

Kairi and Riku walked up to us, talking to each other as they did.

"What's going on? You said you'd be right back," she said to Sora.

"Nothing," I answered. "I just got a little tired." It wasn't a lie, because technically it was true.

"Oh," was all Kairi said.

Riku looked from her to me, and said, "Maybe you should take a break. It's been a long day."

I shook my head, which really only made me dizzy. "No, I don't have time for a break. I need to get back to work." And through my dizziness, I stood up. One good thing about the Starlite was that I wouldn't fall, even if my head was dizzy and my legs were tired.

"Riku's right. You look like you could use some rest," Sora said next.

What it couldn't do, however, was keep my eyes open and force back yawns. And neither could I.

"Fine. But only for a few minutes."

* * *

Hours later, I was sitting on the ground, watching my friends up in the air. Thanks to faith, trust, and some of Tinkerbell's pixie dust, as Peter had put it, they were able to fly, which I thought was pretty cool.

From the beginning, Kairi had been having a little trouble staying afloat. Sora had volunteered to help her, and at that moment was holding her hands and pulling her along. I smiled at them.

Riku was busy being chased by Peter. How that had started, I didn't know, but it was funny to watch anyway.

I fought back the urge to yawn, but failed. As tired as I had been- and still was- I never did fall asleep. Instead, I started a conversation with Tinkerbell, who had wandered over to me out of boredom. Of course I had really been the only one talking, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. And amongst all that, the hours had just passed.

About half an hour after that, we were all sitting in various positions on an imaginary circle. Except for Peter, who was always floating.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Kairi asked me. She was probably referring to the sad look I was wearing. I had been aware of it, and was just waiting for someone to ask.

"We didn't learn _anything_ today. At least, nothing that will help Ciro. And now we only have six more days."

Night started to take over a while ago, which meant that the day was basically over.

"Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out soon. Don't worry," was her reply. Strangely enough, it didn't make me feel any better.

"So…what is it you guys are trying to do again?" Peter asked.

I let out an aggravated sigh, and fell backwards into the grass.

_Stay calm; don't get mad, _I told myself.

"We need to know if my necklace's power has anything to do with flying," I explained to him…for the fourth time.

"Of course. I knew that," he said. As if…

I sat back up, choosing to ignore Peter. "So any ideas how to go about this? Obviously flipping doesn't do anything."

…I couldn't help it. I was still a little upset about that.

"Well you could work on your agility," Riku suggested.

"And your speed. Either one of those could be improved," Sora offered.

And last, but not least, "I'd like it if you learned how to land better," Kairi said.

I blinked at them. I was sure there were times I had felt more stupid, but I really couldn't think of any.

"Right. And since we're thinking about it, _how_ do you want me to do this?"

Silence this time.

"I have an idea," Peter said, breaking said silence.

Everyone turned to him. "Really? What is it?" I asked, curious.

"Be right back," he said. Then he flew away quickly.

"But-" He was gone before I could get anything else out.

"Should we wait?" Kairi asked, head turned the direction Peter left.

"I guess. He said he'd be right back," Sora answered.

She looked at him with an annoyed expression. "So did you."

And so we waited.

And waited.

And when an hour passed and he still hadn't come back, we all just decided to fall asleep. It was late anyway.

* * *

"Hey. Hey, wake up," someone called to me. I ignored them.

"I said wake up!" the same voice called.

Without bothering to open my eyes, I yawned and said, "Peter?"

"Yeah,"

I sat up, my eyes still closed, and stretched. "What took you so long? You…said you'd be right back," I said through another yawn.

"Look," he urged. He sounded like an excited little kid. Which I guess he was.

I slowly opened my eyes. "Look at wh-"

But I saw it. My mouth dropped open.

"What is _that?_"

* * *

Chapter Eleven complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twelve

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

"Tada!" Peter said as he shoved something big and yellow in my face. "You guys were asleep when I got back, so I just decided to go ahead and set everything up."

I blinked, a little surprised. Then I pushed him back so I could see clearly what he was holding.

"A trophy?" I asked. Not that I couldn't tell that the gold cup was a trophy, but I wanted to know _why_ he had it. Then something else struck me. "Wait, set everything up? What are you talking about?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked. He was probably being serious. And that was what bugged me.

I looked back at him. "Is this another one of your games? Because this time, I-"

"Yes."

I stared at him. _Yes?_

"Yes, this is a game," he said with that annoyingly happy look on his face.

Great, so that meant I could leave, right? I didn't have to stick around any longer to put up with him, right? I could go figure this out somewhere else, _right?_

"It's a race!" He held the trophy up in the air.

That caught me by surprise. "A race? What do you mean?"

"Well, you said you needed a way to get better at flying, and this," he gestured around him, "was my idea!"

Even though I didn't really know what he meant, I actually considered his suggestion.

"You mean like a flying race?" I asked him.

"Yeah!"

I racked my brain for one reason this was a stupid idea, but couldn't come up with any. At the very least, it was worth a try. I was glad he was actually trying to help.

"Then…okay, let's give it shot." I picked myself up and headed upwards.

"Wait, we have to wake up the others first," Peter said.

I looked at the still sleeping forms of my friends, and vaguely wondered why they weren't up yet. "What for?"

"They're a part of this too. Why else would I have brought so many rocks?" He looked at a wooden bucket sitting near Kairi.

I didn't bother to ask, but just gave him a look that got my question across. Before he could answer, though, another voice filled the air.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kairi asked, sitting up.

Peter answered first. "Great, you're up!"

"Hey. I'm not really sure what's happening yet, so ask him." I nodded to Peter, who smiled back.

Kairi looked around. "Are Sora and Riku awake?"

I shook my head. "No, but Peter says they need to be for this thing he's planning."

She appeared thoughtful for a moment, then gave me a mischievous smirk. "Then let's wake them up." She stood up quickly, grabbed the bucket beside her, and took off towards an edge of the island. I followed her, not understanding what she was doing.

When we stopped, she asked, "Luna, can you fill this up with water?"

A moment passed before I got it. And when I did, I took the bucket from her, flew down to the water, and it filled it nearly to the top. It was heavier on the way back up- a lot heavier- but I managed not to spill any of it. Quietly, we both carried it back to the sleeping boys.

"On three, okay?" Kairi whispered to me.

I nodded.

"One." We raised the bucket up high.

"Two." We pulled it back.

"Don't even think about it," Riku suddenly said.

I wasn't sure who did it, but one of us almost dropped the bucket.

"Aw, so you are awake," Kairi pouted.

Riku stood up. "I am, but he's not."

Sora was still on the ground, sleeping like…well, like a baby. So we still had the chance.

"Then let's just start over," I said.

"On three?" Riku asked.

I nodded again, smiling.

"One," he said with a smirk. Kairi and I got ready again.

"Two," Kairi said next.

"Three!" I shouted. On that note, we threw all the water onto Sora, who jumped up quickly, looking like he was trying to suppress a scream. In a word, it was _hilarious. _We all burst out laughing, except Sora of course.

"What was that for?" Sora asked, sounding more shocked than angry.

"P-Peter told us to w-wake you up," I explained, though it was barely understandable through my laughing.

A now drenched Sora looked around, then back at me. "But Peter's not even here."

I calmed down a little at that. "What?" I searched for him with the same results as Sora. Where did he go?

"Huh, strange. Did either of you see him leave?" I asked Riku and Kairi.

Riku shook his head while Kairi replied, "No."

"Great so what d-" I started, but never finished. A greenish light flew up in my face. Again. Tinkerbell.

"Tink?" I asked, startled. "Where's Peter?"

She backed up, and pointed off into the distance.

Kairi picked up the empty bucket, and turned it over and over in her hands.

"Where did _you_ go, anyway?" I asked the fairy.

There was no point in her answering, though, because Peter flew up behind Kairi from around a tall rock. Good. Now that he was here, and everyone was awake, he could finish explaining this race thing.

"Back! Did ya miss me?" he asked rather loudly.

I doubted he meant to scare Kairi, but the girl screamed and threw the bucket up in the air anyway.

She whirled around to face her "attacker" just in time to miss the bucket fall straight down on Tinkerbell. I almost started laughing again.

Sora marched up to Peter and said simply, "Thank you," then stuck his tongue out at Kairi.

Peter looked confused. "What did I miss?"

"Not much. Sora just woke up," Riku said.

I bent down to pick the wooden cage up off of Tinkerbell. I could've sworn she was glaring at Kairi.

But I shrugged that off and looked back at Peter. "Hey, can you tell me more about this race now?"

"Oh yeah! I put the trophy at the finish line."

"Race?" Sora asked, wringing out his wet jacket.

"Yeah, it's supposed to try and help me get better at flying, maybe. And he wants everyone to participate," I said.

"Oh no," Kairi said with a hint of exasperation, "You two had better not make this one of your personal competitions," she directed at Sora and Riku.

"Come on, have a little faith in us. This is for Luna. If one of us happens to win, can you really blame us?" Riku asked her.

She narrowed her eyes. "Absolutely."

I figured it was time to move on. "Hey, um, guys?" I'd like to hear the rules now. Peter?"

"Right. It starts over there," He pointed to the rock sticking way out of the water, "and ends in the same place. But there are rocks you have to pick up before you cross the finish line, and everyone has their own color. Sora is red, Kairi is purple, Riku is yellow, Luna is pink, and I'm green. I set them up there, there, and there." He pointed to three other tall, flat-topped rocks. "Any questions?"

I raised my hand, despite how childish it was.

"Can we start now?"

* * *

Chapter Twelve complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Thirteen

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

"Well this should be fun," Sora said, not at all sarcastically.

"Tons," I said back with nothing but sarcasm.

We were standing on top of the giant rock out in the water, a.k.a. the starting line, obviously about to begin.

Tinkerbell flew over everyone's heads, her sparkling dust falling down us. I figured it was a just-in-case type of thing as we had just flown up with the same dust minutes ago. Well, they did anyway. She landed on the ground behind us when she was done.

"Ready?" Peter shouted more than asked. We all nodded and gave our okay to start.

I focused on the imaginary course that had been set out.

_Okay, this is just a few simple turns. Right, left, left, right. Pick up the pink rocks, and cross the finish line. Nothing else matters, _I thought as I lined up with the rest of the group.

"Set," he said next.

"Good luck," Kairi whispered from beside me.

"You too," I whispered back.

_Ugh, why am I doing this? This can't possibly help. This is such a stupid idea…isn't it?_

"Go!" And without an answer to my question, everyone kicked off the rock. Everyone except Kairi, who accidentally kicked Tinkerbell instead. The little fairy went tumbling backwards, and stopped in what looked like an uncomfortable position. Kairi turned back, and shouted "Sorry!" to her, then continued with the race. If turning completely red didn't mean that Tink was mad, then the look of rage on her face probably did.

And the only reason I knew this was I had forgotten to leave with the rest of them. I realized that then, and, mentally slapping myself, took off after everyone who was in front of me. They were already nearing the first station Peter had set our rocks at.

_Great. Good job, Luna. You managed to ruin your chances of winning in ten seconds._

Sora and Peter were neck and neck when they each picked up their first rock. Riku was following closely behind, and Kairi was a little further behind him. And then, of course, I was last. Another mental slap.

I kept my arms close to my sides, so that I would fly faster. Little by little, I came closer and closer to passing Kairi. For the moment, that was my only goal.

Then suddenly, there was a net, big enough to hold a person if needed. I didn't know where it had come from, but it was right in front Kairi. And it was glowing slightly. She halted just before crashing into it, then turned around to look at me with a bewildered expression. I slowed down some, and shrugged. We both rounded the net and went back to flying.

Finally we made it to the first checkpoint. I picked up my pink-colored rock, and Kairi grabbed her purple one. It wasn't hard to get ahead of her after that. Soon after we left the pillar-like boulder, she started to fall behind and out of view.  
Next I concentrated on finding the second station. It was located out in the water as a rock that I hadn't noticed before. And again, all three boys were close to reaching it. It was time to speed up.

I pushed myself harder and harder, until things passing by me were blurred beyond recognition. And even then, I _still_ felt like I was moving too slow.

"Agh!" Kairi's voice screamed, breaking my focus. I looked behind me to see the reason for her sudden outburst. Various objects- sticks, stones, etcetera- were being thrown at her from all directions. She covered her face with her arms, and tried to get away. That plan didn't work very well.

I knew my next actions were going to deserve another mental slap, but I went through with it anyway.

I flew with the same speed as before, and in a few seconds, pulled her away from all the chaos.

She put her arms down and asked, "What was _that_ about?"

"I don't know, but we need to start catching up. Let's go," I told her. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a small glow fly up to where Kairi had been attacked. But Tinkerbell wouldn't really try to hurt her, would she?  
I didn't wait for her or anything; my competitive spirit had taken over and I just wanted to win.

I noticed that it didn't take as much effort to fly as fast as I was now. I guess you could call it progress, but I just _knew_ that it wasn't good enough.

Anyway, I made it a point to spend no more than three seconds at the next stopping point when I got there. So when I did get there, I didn't bother to land. I picked up the small rock with my empty hand on my way by it, then proceeded towards the third and final station, which required making a complete U-turn.

I had managed to gain up on Riku in my pursuit for the second rock. He was approximately thirty feet or so in front of me, and I planned to make up that distance in speed. I focused on Riku, and only Riku, my target. I literally couldn't see anything else. At least not clearly. It sort of felt like someone had pushed a button and sent me into lock-on mode. Ya know, if there was such a thing. Maybe I was taking this too seriously…

Pushing that thought aside, I willed myself to try and go even faster. And I was pretty sure it worked, as I was now getting ready to pass Riku. The look on his face told me that he hadn't expected anyone to show up.

I waved briefly at him as he fell behind. I didn't have any more time to waste. Sora and Peter were still far ahead. And I still had that gut feeling I could go faster. But it seemed that no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to reach that…whatever you would call it. Like it was so close, but just beyond my grasp.

Frustration and hopelessness started to form from somewhere inside me, and it took a humongous amount of willpower just to keep going. I tensed and focused completely on what lay ahead. I forced myself to stay like that for maybe a little too long because soon, I felt disconnected from my body. The only thought that remained was _move._ And it wasn't even really a thought; just a distant command that I felt compelled to listen to. The rest of reality faded away, and, as before, all I could see was what was straight in front of me. Also like before, the sense of _just knowing_ washed over me.

_This is it._

I shot forward, leaving Riku and everything else behind. In absolutely no time at all I was at checkpoint number three, picking up my final rock. All that was left to do was pass Peter and Sora before they crossed the finish line. With both my newfound speed and the fact that this was the longest stretch of the race, I didn't think it would be that hard. However, someone had different plans for me. Someone who threw things at people when she was mad. Or maybe that was just Kairi.

A stick hit my arm, and even though I barely felt it, it was enough to disrupt my concentration and bring me out of my trance.

The first thing I saw when I came to stop was something flailing around just before the second checkpoint. When I looked closer, I realized that it was Kairi, wrapped up in that glowing net. Which only meant one thing.

_Guess she really does have it out for her._ _Well, she looks comfortable enough. I should get back to the-_

"Ow!" I cried out when something hard hit the top of my head. I looked up to see little Tinkerbell herself already aiming another pebble at me. "Hey!"

Then Riku suddenly passed me, which caused me to shout "Hey!" again.

"Hurry up!" he called from in front of me.

I flew after him as fast as I could, which, not really surprisingly anymore, was pretty fast.

It was a straight shot for the finish line. All I had to do was keep from being distracted again, and I could actually win this thing.

I couldn't get myself to focus as hard as it took to reach that, that…

Zenith.

my mind whispered to me.

The sudden thought almost surprised me, but I knew better. It was the Starlite.

Zenith. The word just felt right.

Anyway, as long as I kept my current speed, I knew I'd be okay.

Past Riku, past yet another huge rock, I was almost there. It had taken nearly the whole race, but…but I wasn't done yet.

I gradually sped up as I flew, being sure to stay completely straight. The two ahead of me, although not by much anymore, were still tying for first place; the placing would change every few seconds. Even if I did manage to win, this would be a close race.

"Hey Luna, what took you so long?" Sora asked as I closed in on him and Peter.

"I don't think Tinkerbell likes me anymore," I answered, only half sarcastically. "She's really strong for being so small," I added, rubbing where my arm had been hit.

"Don't take it personally; she's just jealous. She gets like that," Peter informed me.

"Well her jealousy hurts. And what about that net?" I asked, looking around Sora at him.

"I brought it over here with everything else. Tink's job was to make the race harder."

I smirked. "Well Kairi's sure having a hard time."

"Watch out," Sora said suddenly. He leaned back some, and ascended upward. Peter took to the left in a similar manner.

I looked back ahead of me and only had enough time to spit out, "Hu-" before my defensive instincts kicked in. I stuck my arms out in front of my face, shut my eyes, and let out an involuntary scream, waiting for the impact with the gigantic boulder that had just appeared out of thin air- and was also floating in it. It should have happened moments later, but well, didn't. No crash, no pain, nothing. I opened my eyes to find that it wasn't there anymore.

_What the…?_

And then I passed the finish line.

I came to a stop a couple feet behind Sora, shocked and confused. I let all three of the rocks I was holding fall as I spun around quickly to see if the rock I was more interested in had actually vanished. Nope. It was still there, blocking much of the space in my line of view.

_But then how did I…?_

Riku rounded the huge rock next, and landed near Sora. That reminded me. Who had won anyway? It definitely wasn't me. I floated over to the cluster of boys, plus Tinkerbell, forcing any questions about the rock out of my head. I was _not_ going to think about it. Maybe later, but not right now.

"Luna," Riku said as I approached them. "What happened back there?"

"Back where?" I asked casually.

"With that rock. You just disappeared."

And thus ended another one of my great, foolproof plans.

"I…what?"

"I was right behind you. You screamed, and then you were just gone. It almost looked like…" He hesitated. "Nevermind."

"What?" I asked him. "Tell me." I was curious and I was sure I sounded it.

"Well…it looked like you went inside the rock."

I honestly didn't know what to think about that. "What do you mean? I can go through solid objects like boulders?"

He shook his head. "I don't know if that's it or not. What do you think?"

"Maybe," I said slowly. It didn't really answer his question, but hey, I didn't want to think about it in the first place.

"Hey! Does someone wanna help me out of this?" Kairi's voice rang out.

Everyone's heads turned to see the girl hopelessly tangled up in Tinkerbell's net.

Upon seeing this, the little fairy fell backwards, clutching her stomach and laughing.

Sora, chuckling in amusement, strolled over to help Kairi out of the mess of rope.

"Tink!" Peter called, voice stern, which surprised me. "Did you do this?"

Tinkerbell looked up at him and nodded, beaming with pride.

"Well that wasn't very nice. Tell her you're sorry."

Her expression changed to one of absolute shock, like she was trying to say, "But _why_?"

"Because I said so, that's why," was Peter's answer.

So Tinkerbell got up, and slowly made her way to Kairi, who Sora had just finished untangling. Kairi stood still.

But instead of apologizing, Tink stuck her tongue out at Kairi, and flew away in a rush. The only problem was that she had apparently forgotten about her own obstacle and crashed straight into the rock, then proceeded to fall to the ground.

Kairi didn't hesitate to help her up. "Are you okay?"

Tinkerbell brushed herself off, crossed her arms, and turned away from her.

"Um, well, alright…" Kairi paused before standing back up and facing us. "So who won?"

Wait, wasn't that why I had come over here in the first place?

"Oh, yeah. Peter did," Sora stated. "But not by much!"

"Hey, I was close too!" I shouted next.

"I would've beaten you if you hadn't pulled that stunt back there. What was that?" Riku asked me.

"Oh!" Wow, it didn't take long to forget about that. "The Starlite calls it Zenith. It basically means that I'm as good as I'm gonna get! At least when it comes to flying," I said with enthusiasm. And why shouldn't I? I was actually getting somewhere! That deserved enthusiasm!

"That's great! So was that the power you needed to learn?" Sora asked.

And that one little question sent me crashing back into reality.

Everyone waited intently for my answer. But I didn't have one.

"I…I don't know," I finally said. Should I have felt whether not that was it when I learned Zenith? _Would_ I have known? But I already knew the answer to both those questions. Yes.

"That means this isn't it," I muttered in despair. "That means…we just wasted our time here." I clutched my hands into fists, and wanted to cry. A hand was on my shoulder before that could happen though.

"Hey, don't get all sad now. You're gonna figure it out. With the kind of friends you have, you can do anything," Peter told me.

I didn't say anything in return. My heart was telling me he was right- the stupid thing was always so sure- but my head wouldn't let go of the fact that this was just so hard.

_No! _I couldn't let myself go down that path. The minute I did, I'd drown in all the worry and the stress would break me. Too much was at stake for that. No, Peter was right.

We needed to keep moving. Keep thinking. Keep trying. I didn't care what it took; I was going to get Ciro back, and that was that.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Fourteen

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

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_

"We should get going before it gets any later," I requested. That was what I said, but here was what I meant: "We need to leave _now_ before my determination completely gives out."

"So soon? You should stay a while. Ya know, kick back and relax," Peter said.

I glared at him and even though it wasn't funny, he started laughing.

"Just kidding. I know you have to go," he said, smiling.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't you have a trophy to brag about?"

"Oh yeah!" he shouted, then left the group to go get it.

When he was out of earshot, I turned to Sora, Riku, and Kairi and said, "Come on, let's go while he's not looking."

Sora chuckled. Apparently he didn't understand that I was being serious.

Before I could tell him that though, Peter was back, holding the big, yellow monstrosity that was his prize for having won the race.

"Luna's right, we should be getting ready to leave," Riku said. I brightened a little at the sound of that. I was glad somebody was agreeing with me.

"Alright." Sora nodded to Riku. Then to Peter he said, "Well, guess we'll see you again sometime." Tinkerbell flew in to give her goodbye. Sora chuckled again. "You too, Tinkerbell."

"Yeah, it was great to meet you guys," Kairi said cheerily.

Peter said the same to us.

I gave him a pathetic, "See ya," as my farewell. It wasn't like I was trying to be rude, but I wanted to leave.

"So are we done now?" I asked them.

"Yeah," Sora answered.

"Good," I said. "So…"

_In order for all of us to leave a world, we all need to be connected, _I thought before extending my hand to Kairi. She took it, then linked hands with Sora, who took Riku's hand. He took mine, and our little circle of unity was once again complete.

Peter stared on in silence, which was pretty considerate. Especially since it was him, who I had observed to rarely ever show consideration for anyone. I was admittedly glad we were leaving. We had only been in Never Land two days, and that had been more than enough for me.

I closed my eyes and let the Starlite's energy wash over me, as I assumed it did with everyone else. It wasn't as hard to get going as it had been the first time; I didn't have to struggle to force the four of us into the air. It happened almost instantly, which I guessed was a good thing. When I opened my eyes again, I saw that we were all glowing. I still didn't understand what that was about, but as long as it got us where we wanted to go, there wasn't much point in caring. So I didn't. I looked upwards as we rose further and further off the ground, picking up speed as we went. I made a special effort to stay focused this time around. Even when Peter and Tinkerbell began following us, I ignored them.

"Good luck!" Peter shouted and waved at us as we disappeared above the clouds.

A few minutes later the surrounding area started turning darker and darker. Kairi gazed around her in fascination. Sora and Riku, probably used to this by now, just looked at the redhead in amusement. But no one said anything. Not until we were safely away from all gravity-obeying worlds. It seemed that while we were in space, the Starlite's power wasn't needed to keep us afloat. But it also seemed that whenever we entered a new world, it would just turn off. I'd have to keep that in mind to avoid a disaster like we'd almost had in Never Land.

"Alright, we're here," I said, breaking the silence. Everyone dropped hands.

"Yup," Kairi said, still looking around. Her eyes suddenly froze in one direction, and she got that strange, distant look in them. I couldn't tell what she was looking at, and was about to ask her when Sora spoke up.

"So where do we go next?" he asked.

I blinked a couple times, then looked at him. "I don't know. I was hoping you'd have an idea."

"You really shouldn't rely on him to point you in the right direction, Luna. This is _your_ journey," Riku lectured me.

I wasn't going to lie, that hurt just a little bit. It shouldn't have, but it did.

Sora didn't say anything, but I knew he was probably thinking the same thing. Which I couldn't really blame him for. Riku sort of had a point…but again, it hurt. And it wasn't like I knew where to go anyway.

I looked down, embarrassed. "Well, um…" Then I shut my eyes tight, and shook my head. _Ugh, this is no time to get sensitive! _I sighed and looked back up at them, forcing a small smile. "I'm sorry, you're right."

"Luna," Sora said.

"No, no, it's okay. It's just…Ciro always used to be the one making decisions for me. But I need to start thinking for myself now," I explained. "So let's get back to work."

Both Sora and Riku nodded.

"Well, now we know that flying isn't what the Starlite's power is about," Sora started. "But it was worth a shot with how much you flying you do."

"Yeah, I guess," I said. And then something completely irrelevant struck me. "Hey, where's Kairi?"

I turned around to see her moving slowly away from us. "Kairi!" I shouted to her. She flinched slightly and spun back around.

"Oh, sorry," she called back. She gave whatever she had been looking at one last glance, then floated back over to us. She was really starting to worry me.

"So did you guys decide on another world?" she asked.

I shook my head. "No, we're brainstorming. Although the only thing we've really figured out is that it's _not_ flying."

Kairi giggled. "Let me guess, Sora said that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora asked her, mocking hurt.

"Oh, nothing. Just seemed like something you'd point out," she said playfully, bumping his shoulder. He bumped her back. So she bumped harder.

Riku saw it coming before I did, and warned me half a second too late. Sora pushed Kairi a little too hard, sending her crashing into me.

"Agh!" I cried out. I just stared at them for a moment, then said, "Ow!" in pretend annoyance. Well, really only half pretend.

"Ow?" Sora looked amused. "You're not supposed to say ow when you get hurt."

"Well maybe Destiny Islands has different rules then, 'cause on Galaxy, you say ow when someone hits you." I rubbed my left arm.

Sora laughed. "I meant that you should try to defend yourself."

"From flying teenage girls?" I asked incredulously.

"Actually, I think Sora may be on to something," Riku suddenly said. We all looked at him.

"What?" I asked.

"This guy, the one who took Ciro, seems to have a thing for fighting. He had two swords with him when we saw him," he continued.

I just blinked at him. "You're not suggesting I learn how to _fight_?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. If he wants the Starlite, then it could be because it'll make him stronger. So maybe that's what you're supposed to do."

"But…but…I-I'm not a violent person! I've never even killed a bug, let alone _fought _someone!"

"Neither was I before I used a Keyblade," Kairi told me. I had my two heroes to fight for me. But sometimes we have to face our fears to help the people we care about."

All I could do was stare. She'd told me about that before. How Riku had given her her very own Keyblade and how exciting it was to wield it. But never once had she said she was scared of fighting. That probably meant I was being childish in comparison.

The use of that word shocked me. Peter was my new definition for childish, and I did _not _want to be the same way. But saying yes would mean having to pick up a weapon and learning how to using it. Could I really do that, being the pacifist that I was? Then another thought ran through my mind.

_Ciro could._ _Ciro fought that man to protect me. I need to do the same for him._

And all those doubts just melted away. Positive thoughts had a way of doing that to me.

"This isn't about what I want. This is about what I need to do," I whispered, but not so quietly. They all heard me.

Riku nodded his approval.

"So then that's our new goal?" Sora asked.

"Yeah," I answered after a moment.

"Then I have an idea if you want to hear it."

"Sure."

"It's a world I know."

I was surprised that he'd come up with something already, but quickly asked what it was.

"Come on, it's this way," he said enthusiastically.

And so we followed him yet again across space to some new world full of new people. Which got me thinking.

"Sora, may I ask where exactly we're going and whether or not maturity is a common trait among the people there?"

He laughed. "Don't worry, you'll like it. Me, Donald, and Goofy have been here loads of times." He started going faster.

"But that doesn't answer my question!" I tried shouting. He didn't hear me. I looked to Riku. "Do you know where we're going?"

"No, but I think we're about to find out," he said.

"Huh?"

Riku flew ahead of me to where I saw Sora floating in place. Beyond him was presumably the world he was leading us to. Kairi and I slowed to a stop behind the two boys.

"So that's it?" I asked, looking up at it.

"Yup. What do you think?" Sora asked back.

"Well, it's, um, interesting," I said, tilting my head to one side.

Oh yes, it was interesting. Very interesting indeed.

"So are we ready?" Riku questioned.

"I think so," Kairi decided to answer for all of us.

I took a deep breath and let it out before saying, "Then let's go."

* * *

Chapter Fourteen complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Fifteen

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

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_

We were only able to go a few feet before I made everyone stop again.

"Wait!" I shouted, having remembered something rather important.

"What's wrong?" Kairi asked me.

"I…I was thinking. About what happened in Never Land. How Kairi almost got hurt."

The girl sighed. "Luna, it's fine. _I'm _fine."

"No, its not. The Startlite is my responsibility, and I lost control of it. I don't want that to happen again," I said firmly.

"Things like that happen. The point is we're all okay," Sora said in a voice that was meant to be comforting.

"Right _now. _But…I-I'd like to stay together this time; ya know, be careful."

"That's a good idea," Riku said.

I stared at him a second before smirking. "I thought it was your job to come up with good ideas."

"I already did, that's why we're here," he said, crossing his arms.

"Actually, we're here because Sora got an idea."

"I have an idea. Why don't we stop talking about ideas?" Kairi interrupted our argument.

"Oh. Oops," I said sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head.

"Yeah, come on, I haven't been here in forever!" Sora announced.

I looked over my shoulder at the world before us. Guess it was time to start moving again. "Right, but again, let's stay together."

Three heads nodded at me in agreement, and we all took hands. As we neared the brightly lit world, I bit my lip and silently prayed that my plan would work. Since we were connected again, all four of us glowed under the Starlite's control. I took note of this little detail because a few moments later, we weren't. No glow, no float. No float, then, well, we crash. And since I was too busy thinking about all this to actually do something about it, things weren't looking too good.

Until Kairi shouted my name. I blinked quickly, all my thoughts coming to an immediate stop. It amazed me how I managed to zone out even in the middle of a crisis. But I still shut my eyes to focus on the Starlite. The usual process of connecting with the necklace took place, and when I opened my eyes again, we were all glowing. Huh, that simple. And to think all that drama could've been avoided the first time in a matter of seconds.

Thanks to our much nicer landing, we were able to touch ground a few minutes later.

"Great, so that takes care of that," I said with a clap of my hands, since I had let go of Kairi and Riku's.

Sora didn't stick around very long- something about Herc…something or other.

And then it occurred to me that I didn't know who was here, and how they'd take to seeing some strange girl just floating around their world. It would probably be better if I just walked for now. Or my version of walking, at least.

I dropped to the dirt floor and began trailing behind the rest of the group slowly, taking in my surroundings. The whole place was built out of some sort of brick, although there were plenty of windows. Large pillars stood on each side of two equally large doors, one being behind me, and the other before me. The latter was placed between two golden statues of warriors. All in all, the place was pretty darn impressive.

All I could do was stare in awe. Sora must have had a lot of friends in high places.

"Luna, hurry up!" Kairi called for me. I looked to her just as she was entering the second door. The others must have already gone through.

I strolled a little faster to catch up with her. When I pushed the door open, I found that it was surprisingly very light. On the other side of the previously mentioned huge door was a small room. Trophies were placed on shelves on either side of the gold-colored brick room.

"Hm, nope," Sora stated, taking a quick look around before continuing through another door. Couldn't he sit still for five minutes?

Apparently not.

So, sighing, I followed the three into what looked like an arena. A big one at that.

_Matches the rest of the place._

"Phil!" Sora shouted, enthusiastically. When he said this, a goat like creature turned to face him with an astonished expression. At the same time, a man who had been swinging a sword around stopped to look as well.

I just involuntarily tensed. My vision blurred and darkened for a moment, fooling my eyes into believing that it was someone else who was holding a sword. No, two. Flames flickered on the edges, growing with every passing second. A scream. It was so shrill, and it wouldn't stop. Where was it coming from? Me. I was screaming as the fire threatened to hurt me, just like it had hurt them. I screamed again for somebody to help me. I heard my name; it came from the other side of the blaze, scared and desperate. I searched with tear-flooded eyes, but could see nothing. I hid my face from the fire again and continued to scream.

I flinched hard enough to almost send me falling backwards, had I not caught myself at the last second. My breath was sharp, and the palms of my hands hurt. When I looked down at them, I realized that they were clenched, my fingernails digging deep into them. And I didn't need a mirror to know that I looked terrified. But who wouldn't be after something like that?

"That's the second time that's happened," I whispered to myself. It was true. That same nightmare had come to me the day before. Only not as vividly as it had been this time. What did that mean?

"Luna, is something wrong?" Riku's voice suddenly broke my thoughts.

I jerked my head in his direction, surprised, and still on edge from the hallucination.

"What? Oh, oh, yeah, I'm- I'm fine," I stuttered, shaking my head a little.

_I think…_

Something in Riku's eyes told me that he knew I was lying. And it looked like he wanted to say something about it, but decided against it and said, "Sora's over there introducing Kairi to his friends. I was sent to get you," instead.

I glanced over at the group of four all talking and smiling. "Right," I said quietly.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again.

"I…I think I'm just dreaming again. No big deal." I forced a smile at him.

He still looked concerned, but thankfully let the subject drop and led me over to the center of the arena so that Sora could introduce me as well.

"Hey Luna, there you are," Sora said when we neared them. "This is Phil," he gestured to the centaurish person, "and Hercules." The man with the sword.

"Hi," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could manage at the moment.

"Nice to meet you. Luna, was it?" Hercules asked.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you too."

"Hey, we're happy to meet any friends of Sora's, but Herc and I have gotta train for the next match. A hero's work is never done," Phil said, nudging, um, Herc in the leg with his elbow.

I tilted my head a bit and was about to ask Phil what he was talking about, but Sora beat me to it.

"Yeah, I see you got the Coliseum back up and running. It looks great!"

While Sora and Phil went into detail about rebuilding and construction, I leaned over to Kairi and whispered, "Any idea what they're talking about?"

"Not a clue," she whispered back.

A few more minutes later and Riku started talking to Hercules about something. I couldn't really say I was interested, and therefore didn't pay attention. When were we gonna get to the actual reason for being here? It looked like I'd have to bring it up.

And then in the middle of their conversation, Sora blurted out, "Oh! Where's Meg? I think Luna and Kairi should meet her."

Upon hearing my name, but not having fully comprehended the statement yet, I looked to him with confusion.

"Meg?" I asked.

"She's around here somewhere. I'd go look for her, but like Phil said, I've gotta get back to training. You guys can go if you want."

_Here's my chance._

"Actually," I started, stepping forward, "we came here for a little more than a visit."

Phil, who had begun walking away, now turned back around. "Hm?"

"Well, you see, I have a small problem." I raised my feet off the ground some before continuing. "My brother was taken by someone who wants this," I held out the Starlite, "and I only have a few more days to figure out how to save him. Sora seemed to think you could help us, er, me…can you?"

I waited for some kind of reaction from my silent audience. At least an audible one; there were various looks on their faces. The only one I got came from Sora.

"Uh…," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What? It's true," I argued against his feeble response.

"I know. I guess I was just expecting you to be a little more…" He didn't finish.

"What?" I asked, insisting that he tell me what it was I had done wrong. We came to request their help, and that's what I did.

"Shy."

Okay, so that definitely wasn't where I thought he was going with this.

"Shy?"

"Well, sort of. You're not usually so blunt. That's all."

I looked to Kairi and Riku. "I'm not shy, am I?"

"Well," Kairi started.

"You can be," Riku finished for her.

"Yeah," Sora agreed with their reasoning.

I just went from staring at one of them to the next. Never had I thought of myself as shy before. Quiet maybe, but shy?

"Hey, we'll help," Phil suddenly said.

When I looked down at him, he had his arms crossed and was wearing a smirk. "You will?"

"Of course. Sora's helped us so many times before; it's the least we can do to help out now. Anything you need, just tell us," Hercules told me.

I felt the corners of my mouth turn up. "I'd like to train here."

* * *

Chapter Fifteen complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Sixteen

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

* * *

_

_No. No. No. No. No. No._

A sudden burst of anger, stronger than what I was already feeling, formed inside me. I released it by slamming my fist into the metal wall behind me. A small dent was beginning to form where I had hit the same place repeatedly.

_Just who does he think he is? He has no right to ruin our lives like this! He never had that right!_

My downcast face contorted with hatred, fury. I had thoughts like these on a regular basis, but in the past twenty-four hours, it had only gotten worse.

I brought my hand back and was about to swing it into the wall again when I heard the door open. It wasn't much more than a squeak, but I knew that sound well by now.

Black hair fell in my face as I lifted it towards the entryway, but I didn't care.

Nero stood with his arms crossed, glaring at me with dark eyes.

I dropped both my arm, and my head. "Now what do you want?"

"Oh, just thought I should give you an update on how things are going. Seeing as you're _trapped_ and all."

I knew he loved to see me get mad, so I used all the willpower I had to remain silent.

When he saw that I wasn't going to respond, he said, "She's on her way," without the usual sarcasm.

And without thinking I jerked my head back up. "What?"

He rolled his eyes and began walking towards my prison cell. "Luna? Starlite? Any of this ring a bell? Geez, you leave him alone for five minutes and he loses it." He stopped in front of the metal bars to stare down at me.

I scowled. "What do you mean?" My voice was hard.

"I mean she isn't where I left her, which means she's gone out looking for you. At least _she_ listens to me."

I left my face as blank as possible. I didn't want him to know what I was thinking, but turning away would be even worse.

_Please let him be wrong._

"You know I'm right."

"You think you're right."

"So you have another idea as to where she's going?"

"…"

He smirked beneath his signature black bandana. "All roads lead to here. It shouldn't be much longer now."

There was suddenly a question I wanted to ask. One that needed answering right that moment.

"What do you even plan to do? Even if Luna manages to find her way, she's the only one who can use the Starlite. And she _won't _help you. Given everything else you seem to know, I would've thought you'd have known that." I certainly knew it.

"Heh, and I would've thought you'd know by now that I'm smarter than you."

My emotionless mask was breaking, but I kept quiet.

"Luna isn't going to help me by her own will, that's true. But we've been very busy these last few years, working on something that should fix that problem, and the Doc's finally got it perfect. And guess who gets to be our little guinea pig."

It just happened. I jumped up and flung myself at the bars, grabbing hold of two of them and squeezing them in a death grip. "I'm warning you, leave her alone! You don't know what you're doing!" I yelled. My actions were beyond my control now. All the pent up anger I had been using to hit walls couldn't remain inside any longer. It all came out in one violent rush.

His eyes narrowed but he didn't make any other movement. "As long as Luna has the Starlite, she _will_ find her way here. It's inevitable."

And with no further comment, he turned and walked casually out of the basement.

* * *

"Agh!" I screamed, as another barrel suddenly appeared a few feet away from where the one I had just destroyed had been. A way-too-big sword hung sloppily in my tiny hands. Phil had dug it out of some closet for me to use as practice for hitting these stupid, magic barrels.

I spun on my heel about forty-five degrees and held my weapon back up. I swung as hard as I could at the wooden target. It shattered to pieces, and those pieces faded from existence moments later. And in a bright flash, a new one was there to replace it.

I groaned. "How long do I have to do this?" I asked my coach, who was standing on the sidelines.

"Do you see barrels? Then hit them!" was his answer.

I sighed and continued to hit barrel after barrel after barrel until my arms felt like they were just going to fall off. Half an hour later, I was sprawled out on the ground, panting from exhaustion.

"So...many...barrels," I spat out, immediately regretting having used my throat.

Red hair and violet eyes suddenly appeared in my line of vision. "How ya feeling?"

I sat up some, using my hands to support myself, and tilted my head back to look at Kairi. "Tired."

She giggled. "But you didn't do much. How can you be tired?"

I ignored her question this time and stood up, brushing some dirt off my skirt as I did so.

"Oy, kid, haven't you ever fought before?" Phil asked me, walking up out of nowhere.

I shook my head. "No."

He sighed. "Then we have a lot of work to do."

"Oops. This isn't really my conversation. I'll…go find Riku," Kairi said before turning and running away. My look pleading her to stay didn't reach her in time. Oh well.

I looked back to Phil. "How much is a lot? I don't have much time, so I'd like to hurry this up."

"You can't expect to learn how to fight overnight; it takes years. Look at Herc. Found him when he was as scrawny as you. Now he's my star pupil. And he got that way through hard work and determination."

"Well I have determination. Doesn't that count?"

He sighed again. "Okay, look, there's a tournament tomorrow. You do well enough today, and I might let you compete."

I was about to thank him when Sora ran up. "Hey, how's it going?"

"I told your friend that the Games are being held tomorrow. Explain it to her; I've got to go set up some stuff."

As he walked away, I called after him, "It's Luna!"

"Great! I was hoping we'd get here in time! You should enter," Sora stated happily.

"What is it exactly?" The Games sounded fun. But then again, this place was all about fighting…

"All you have to do is take that sword and swing it at anything you see, nothing really hard."

"Heh, for you maybe; you've done this before."

He laughed. "Would you like me to help?"

"Can you?" I knew he was joking, but the idea of help sounded really…helpful.

"Sure. We just have to sign up together. But don't expect me to do everything for you. This is something you have to learn."

I smirked. "Darn."

"Hey!" Phil's voice called out. "Your next training session is ready!"

Sora and I turned to look at him walking back into the vestibule. That was quick. I furrowed my eyebrows in question. "I thought all the training was done in here. What's he doing?"

Sora shrugged. "Better go find out."

And so I picked up my weapon and we made our way up to the door that led us back into the small room with all the trophies. Phil was inside waiting for us. It was then that I realized I hadn't seen Kairi or Riku in a while. Where did they go?

"Hey, Sora, what happened to everyone else?"

"Hercules said he was gonna go look for Meg. Kairi wanted to help and dragged Riku with her. I thought somebody should stay with you."

I chuckled to myself. _Oh, right, Meg. I still haven't met her._

"You comin' or not? I don't have all day," Phil commented, waving us over to the next door.

Outside, there were, much to my dismay, more barrels. But they looked different. They were bigger, and slightly glowing on the edges. Oh, great.

"This is my next assignment?" I asked my coach, bending over to peer around Sora at him.

"Yup. I went too easy on you last time, so we're gonna kick it up a notch. Now get going. And no more standing around and talking. I'm going back inside to set up for tomorrow. When I come back, I'd better be impressed." Ending his little lecture, Phil walked away.

"Geez, harsh much?" I said when he was out of earshot.

"That's Phil for ya. But he really does want to help," Sora told me.

My eyes went back to the task ahead of me. I sighed and held my sword upright with both hands. "Well, here goes nothing."

A sudden light flashed from Sora's direction. I looked at him and saw that he was now holding a weapon. His Keyblade. I had forgotten all about that. Golden hilt, silver blade, and a little chain that dangled off the end of it. It was certainly a most peculiar weapon.

I didn't realize I was still staring until he spoke up. "You did say you wanted my help didn't you?"

I blinked a couple times, then answered his question with a smile and a nod.

Both of us jumped forward, smashing barrels left and right. Sora, obviously, was much better at it. But that didn't matter. I would get better too. I knew that as long as I had the Starlite, I would get stronger. I would find my way to Ciro. And I would rescue him. It was inevitable.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Seventeen

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

The rest of the day pretty much consisted of training, training, and, oh yeah, more training. Phil was relentless about it, too. He just kept setting up harder levels for me to complete. It felt more like a game with Sora around, though. Every time I was about to give up, and that happened more than once, he'd end up talking me into continuing. And unlike Phil, who left occasionally to "check on things", Sora would let me take a break every once in a while. He was probably the only reason I made it through today. Riku and Kairi were still off with Herc, and I was beginning to doubt that they were still looking for Meg. How hard could it be to find one girl? Well, anyway, night eventually came and finally convinced Phil, who was still technically my _real_ coach, to let me stop.

Phil was nice enough to let us stay at his house for the night, which was in a town outside the Coliseum. He set us up in a spare room with some blankets and a lit candle, and left us to get some rest for the night. It reminded me a lot of when Kairi had first taken me in.

I yawned. "It sure has been a long day. Anyone else beat?" I asked when we were alone.

"How long did you guys train anyway?" Kairi inquired.

"Oh, until you and Riku left," Sora answered.

"And for about seven hours after that," I added.

Kairi giggled. "Did you at least miss us?"

"What were you three even doing?" I asked.

Kairi looked confused. "Three?"

"I don't think they know that we left Hercules," Riku told her.

"Oh! Yeah, we let Hercules go look for Meg by himself and just walked around a while," Kairi explained.

"Well you guys are nice," Sora said sarcastically.

Kairi shot him a pouty look. "He told us we could. Isn't that right Riku?"

"It wasn't so much that as Kairi wouldn't stop wandering off every five seconds. He finally just let her leave and I followed her to make sure she didn't get lost."

Sora and I started laughing. Kairi, of course, got mad. "I was just looking at all the posters they had up about the Games. It looks like fun."

"Huh, maybe you should just enter then," Riku teased.

That seemed to be the first time Kairi had given that notion any real thought, because this huge smile appeared on her face. "Can I?"

Sora smirked. "We don't have time for you to get hurt."

Her smile disappeared at these words. But before she could protest, Sora continued.

"We're here for Luna right now. We need to try and help her first. We can always come back after we find her brother. There's bound to be another tournament soon."

The smile returned, but this time it was directed at me. "Okay."

Yeah, after we find Ciro. The thought was so simple, so reassuring. I wasn't the only one who believed it, and that made me feel better about it.

But of course, doubt soon made its way inside me. I hated asking _again_, but, "What if this doesn't work?"

Everyone's chatter immediately stopped. Great, way to go, mood-killer.

"We can't know until we've tried. You've gotta remember that," Riku said sympathetically.

I sighed. "I know, but it's hard not to think about. I mean, I just…" But I didn't know what to say.

Kairi rested her hand on my shoulder and her face went serious. "Riku's right. You need to push away all those feelings of uncertainty. They're only going to get in your way. Okay?"

She cut me off before I could even answer.

"And…when you get sad, it makes me sad. And it's hard to help you if we're both sad."

All I could do was stare at her. I hadn't ever thought about it like that before.

"Okay?" she asked again.

"O-okay." It was sort of an involuntary answer, but with Kairi staring at me like that, so intently, I couldn't really help it.

The smile was back a split second later, and it was like nothing had happened. Talking resumed and laughter resounded. Things continued this way for the next couple hours until everyone but me had fallen asleep.

It almost felt like we were back on the Islands, just sitting around goofing off. I already missed that.

That got me wondering about something else: what was I going to do _after_ all this? Where would I- and Ciro- go when we were safe again? Part of me wanted to go back to Galaxy, my home. But the other part of me wanted to go back to Destiny Islands with my friends. And then there was another small part of me that wanted…something else. I ignored it.

Why hadn't I thought about this before? I'd been so busy worrying myself with the present, I had completely forgotten about the future.

I shut my eyes tightly, and, as a way to fight back the oncoming frustration, I forced myself to think about something more pleasant: the past.

_I laughed as I grasped onto branch after branch, pulling myself higher up into the tree. I scraped my hands more than once, and Ciro would get mad when he saw how dirty my clothes were, but I didn't care. I pushed leaves out of my way so I could stick my head out into the blue sky. I closed my eyes and smiled while the breeze carried strands of hair over into my face. The sun was warm and I just enjoyed just being free. He was so overprotective; I never got to do anything. But he was sleeping now, and I had time to have fun._

_Maybe I was so busy thinking that I forgot to pay attention. Maybe I took a step too far to the side and lost my balance. Whatever the reason, the next thing I knew, I was falling. I didn't even have time to call for help. I hit every branch possible on the way down- my arm hit one especially hard. And then, I stopped. I choked for a second on the suddenness of it. Then I felt the pain, and screamed. Every part of me ached with unbelievable pain._

_I heard a door open loudly, and just moments later, Ciro was by my side._

_"What happened?" he demanded, although he sounded more scared than angry._

_"M-my a-arm," I sputtered. It hadn't taken me long to figure out that even though my whole body hurt, my right arm was definitely where it hurt most._

_Some neighbors and other village people began to file out of their houses, curious about the scream they had just heard. "Is she okay?" a few of them asked. The man who acted as the doctor for Galaxy pushed his way to the front of the crowd and knelt beside Ciro. He gently took the arm that my brother had been holding until then. After a few minutes of pressure to certain spots of my forearm, most of which caused me to scream some more, he came to the conclusion that I had fractured my wrist during my fall. Ciro listened intently while the doctor gave him instructions on how to treat my injury. He wrapped my arm up with some sort of cloth and told us that he would come to our house in a couple of days to check on me again._

_A few people stuck around to help Ciro carry me back inside and lay me on my bed, but the rest of them returned to their own houses and continued with their lives._

_That night when Ciro brought me my food, he had this look of poorly-hidden anger on his face. I felt bad. I shouldn't have gone out without telling and we both knew it. He must have been so mad at me…_

_"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly._

_"Better."_

_"The doctor said that you need to stay in bed for the next few days and to not try and use your arm much."_

_I nodded._

_Silence followed for a long time, making me uncomfortable. I needed to say something, but the moment I opened my mouth to do so, the most unexpected thing happened._

_"I'm sorry," he said._

_My jaw dropped and all my thoughts scattered at this. "W-what?"_

_"This is all my fault. I left you unprotected and…and this is what happened."_

_I was too shocked to say anything. He was looking at me, but at the same time, he wasn't. It was almost as if he was thinking about something else completely. But that didn't make any sense so I ignored that thought._

_I finally found it in me to reach out to him with my good arm. That brought him back to reality._

_"This wasn't your fault. I left on purpose without asking because I thought you wouldn't let me. You always want to keep me safe, and now I know why. Don't blame yourself for what I did."_

_Conflicted emotions flickered across his eyes, and he quickly turned away. I saw his fist clench. He was trying his hardest to stay strong. But it just wasn't enough. All at once his barriers broke down and he started crying._

_Once again I was shocked, but this time I got over it and managed to pull him into a hug with only a couple of winces on my part._

_I didn't understand what was going on or why he was so upset, but I let him continue to cry into my shoulder._

_It looked like we both had wounds that needed to heal._

"Luna, are you alright?"

I flinched and broke away from my reverie. Kairi was staring worriedly at me. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"You're crying…"

"Huh?" I lifted a hand to my face and found that she was right. When had that started?

I was silent a moment before I said, "I was just thinking about something, that's all. Nothing important." I forced a smile.

She still looked uneasy about it, but let the subject drop anyway.

"I... I didn't wake you up did I?" I asked her. Riku and Sora were still asleep, and she had been the last time I saw her. I hoped I hadn't done something to change that.

She smiled sweetly and shook her head. "It was the candle, not you."

I looked at the flickering light still sitting on the ground between us. "Oh." I picked it up and, returning the same smile one last time, blew out the flame.

* * *

Chapter Seventeen complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

And while I'm at it, I apologize for the long wait. Writer's block sucks -.-


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Eighteen

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

* * *

_

"So, you ready for this, kid?"

"When you say ready, do you mean am I prepared to go out in front of a crowd and fight a bunch of monsters? Then no, I will never be ready."

Phil gave me an annoyed look. I complied.

"But I can try my hardest anyway."

The two of us were standing inside the vestibule, basically just waiting until it was time to go out into the ring. The only reason the rest of the group wasn't with us was because Kairi insisted on going up into the stands to find a good seat before they were taken. She would've dragged me along too had Phil not come and saved me from going in yet.

"Much better. Hey, you seen Herc? He's supposed to be here, too."

I shook my head. "Not since yesterday."

"Great. If he misses today, I'm going to train him so hard…" He took a deep breath and let it out.

"Why would he miss this? I thought it was important."

"It is, but that free-loading girlfriend of his has his head up in the clouds and he's been slackin' off lately. That's why we were training so close to the Games."

"Girlfriend?... Oh, Meg?"

He didn't really answer my question, but I figured I was right.

"Hey, Phil!"

Both Phil and I turned towards the entrance behind us to see Hercules walking in holding the hand of a girl wearing a purple dress. Aw, how sweet.

"There you are! What, are you trying to give me a heart attack? I've got two words for you: be on time!"

In any other situation, I would have felt the urge to point out his error with counting. However, I ignored it, walked up to girl and said, "Hi, you must be Meg."

"That's right." She nodded. "And, let's see, Herc told me some of Sora's friends were here. Are you Kairi?"

I smiled. "No, actually I'm Luna. Kairi's inside with everyone else."

"Ah, yeah, I should go find a seat, too. Nice to meet you, Luna." She turned to look up at Hercules, said, "Good luck," and left.

Her companion stared after her even when she had disappeared from view.

"Herc?... Herc!" Phil called, only to receive no reply. He sighed and turned to me. "See what I mean? Useless."

I let out a small laugh that ironically seemed catch Herc's attention.

"Huh?" he asked, coming out of his daze.

"Come on, let's get a move on; it's time," Phil instructed.

I looked warily at the door to the battle arena. "Is it really?"

"Yes, really, now both of you _go_."

I held my hands up in defense. "Okay, okay, we get it."

Hercules led the way into the Coliseum. Upon entering, the sun hit my eyes so suddenly, I was forced to pull a hand up to shield them. When they adjusted, I looked around at the audience until I found Kairi waving me over to where they had found some available seats. Sora turned towards her and said something that made her stop, then he ran in my direction.

"So, ready? I think it's about time to start," he said after he stopped.

"Well, ready or not, I'm going to do this," was my answer. I _needed_ to do this.

He smiled in understanding. "It's not as bad as you think. After a while, when you get used to it, it'll be fun."

I nodded. "I know, you told me yesterday. But as much as I want to believe you, I just don't know-" And then I remembered what Kairi had said the night before.

"_When you get sad, it makes me sad. And it's hard to help you if we're both sad."_

Wow… "Um, never mind. Hey, do you know where my sword is?" I asked instead.

Sora didn't seem at all phased by my little subject change, not that I minded. If ever I was glad Sora was like that, it was then.

"I saw it over by the door earlier," he answered. We both turned our heads to see it propped up against the wall by the entrance. It amazed me that I hadn't seen it when I had come in.

"Great, thanks," I said and took off to go get it. I picked it up, arms recognizing the familiar heaviness of it. "Well, you sure didn't get any lighter," I complained under my breath to it. Then I realized that must have meant that I had gotten stronger- at least a little- and that cheered me up for a second.

When I returned to my partner, there wasn't any more time for talking. We took our places in the center of the ring and waited for something to happen. I was about to ask Sora about it when out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of darkness and from that, a small black twitchy creature with antenna and yellow eyes. I gasped. "What is that?" I practically screamed. Before he could answer, more and more of them appeared in the same fashion until there were at least ten.

Sora's eyes narrowed. "Heartless." He charged forward at them, Keyblade materializing as he did so, leaving me behind to gape at him.

"Heart_what_? You mean…those things you talked about?"

"Yeah, now come on; these are easy," he said, slashing through two of the creatures with his weapon. Both of them disappeared as inky black puffs of smoke.

_Why didn't anyone tell me we were fighting _Heartless_?_

Sora jumped to the side and shouted, "Come on, Luna, it's just like we practiced!"

"R-right." I shakily held my sword up. I took a couple careful steps forward, thankful that the monsters' attention was still on Sora. Quietly, I snuck up to the nearest one…

Only to have it turn and pounce on me.

Pure instinct was the only thing that saved me. My eyes shut quickly and tightly while my arms swung its heavy blade in defense. When I opened my eyes again, the Heartless that had been attacking me was gone.

"I… I killed it?" I whispered to myself. I didn't know whether to cringe or be proud of myself. I also didn't have time to think about it as the other creatures, having seen me destroy their friend, were already making their way towards me.

Sora ran around them and stopped beside me, preparing to fight again. I did the same, only I didn't look nearly as intimidating, I was sure.

At this point, I counted there to be seven of them left.

"So, you take four of them and I'll take the other three?" Sora asked.

"Uh, how about the other way around." I gave him a pleading look. "Just this once."

Without another word, both of us went back to slicing and stabbing at the dark creatures until they were no more.

"Ya know, that was pretty easy," I said when we were able to take a break. Sora and I were walking over to Kairi and Riku who were seated in the first row of the audience.

"Don't worry, it'll get harder," he replied with amusement.

I sighed. "Somehow, I just knew you'd say that."

"Hey guys!" Kairi caught our attention with a shout. We both looked in her direction. "Great job," she said cheerily.

Riku, in contrast to Kairi and her praises, smirked and said, "Come on, Sora, I thought you were stronger than that," in a sarcastic tone.

Both boys shared a look like what he had said was some sort of inside joke. I almost asked, too.

I went with, "So those were Heartless?" instead.

I received three nods in reply.

"Funny, I imagined them…scarier looking. Those things were kind of cute. Twitchy, but cute."

"It's not cute when they rip your heart out of your body," Riku said solemnly.

My eyes went wide. "What?"

"Okay, new subject," Sora interjected quickly. "It should be about time to go back."

"But, but…I'm scared now!" And I was only half joking.

Kairi giggled. "You'll be fine as long as they're around." They being Sora and Riku, I assumed.

As Sora dragged me back into the ring, I began to wonder what we'd be fighting next. Would it be more Heartless? Or something else? Or-

Four more of the same Heartless we had just fought emerged from the darkness. And along with them, six of something else. These were more human-like, and were wearing helmets, but with those same glowing eyes, I figured them to be more Heartless. They immediately started attacking us with their claws, and this time, I made sure not to hesitate in killing them. I got rid of the first four while I let Sora start on the soldier-looking ones. However, the enemy didn't exactly follow my plan. I was forced to dodge a lot of their attacks and strike back, whether they were my target at the moment or not. It got quite annoying.

"Can't you guys give me a break? I'm new at this!" I ended up shouting at one of them. When it responded by jumping at me, I swung my sword at it so hard, I accidentally spun in a little circle, taking out another Heartless as I did. The last one, actually.

When I stopped spinning and tried to refocus my eyes, I heard Sora start laughing.

"Nice one," he teased.

I was too dizzy to do anything but stick my tongue out at him. I'd always been like that, prone to dizziness, headaches, and blackouts. It made times like now when I wanted to say something clever, yet slightly insulting, difficult.

This time we decided just to wait in the ring until it was time to start the next battle. Not that it took long; things were ready to go in just a couple minutes.

Next up came something completely different. They were, of course, more Heartless- I was just going to have to get used to that, wasn't I?- but they weren't as dark looking. And these flew. Red, green, yellow, and blue Heartless that did nothing but shoot different elements of nature at me. Except the green ones; they just kept healing the stupid things I was trying to destroy, which made them my least favorite. And it regretfully took a few minutes to figure out that I needed to get rid of them _first._ Oh, and Sora let me do everything by myself this time around. Something about applying the use of strategy…

"You just wanted to watch me get hit with the fire, didn't you?" I asked him afterwards.

"Of course not!" he retaliated. "But it _was _kinda funny."

I knew it…

I spotted Phil walking towards us. Huh, it had been a while since I'd seen him.

"Okay you two, time to go do something else," he said.

I blinked in surprise. When I looked at Sora, he didn't seem to know what was going on either.

"Why?" he asked.

"Think of it as an intermission. I'll call you back when we're ready again."

I shrugged. "Sounds good to me. I think I'll go take a nap." I dropped my sword where I was and left the two standing there and made my way to Kairi and Riku. They hadn't moved an inch the entire time.

"Back," I said as I neared them.

"What's going on? Everyone's leaving," Kairi said, looking around her at the dispersing crowds.

"Apparently we get a break, which is fine by me. Sitting sounds great right now."

Riku chuckled. "Sora's rubbed off on you. You're becoming as lazy as he is."

I opened my mouth to defend myself, then realized that was probably true. "Well…hmph," I said, crossing my arms.

"Hey, you guys need something to do for a while?" came a voice from behind me.

Meg was standing there when I turned. I was sort of surprised to see her. I thought she would have been with Hercules. Speaking of which, where was he?

"Yeah, we were just trying to figure that out," I answered for all of us.

"Well, I've got front row seats to watching Phil blow a gasket. Wanna watch?"

I brightened up at that. "Sure." I turned back to my friends. "This is Meg."

"Oh, it's nice to finally meet you," Kairi said with a smile.

"Yeah, we've heard a lot from Hercules," Riku continued.

"Well I guess you must be Kairi and Riku. Am I right this time?" Meg asked playfully.

I laughed, which of course confused the two who hadn't been with us earlier.

"Did we miss something?" RIku asked curiously.

"No, no, not at all." I started walking away with Meg. I paused and waved over my shoulder for them to follow us. "Come on, let's go!"

* * *

Chapter Eighteen complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Nineteen

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

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_

Half an hour later things were ready for us to fight again. Nothing of importance happened during our break, or "intermission", as Phil called it. We sat, we waited, we talked, and then it was time to work again. I would've planned to have more fun had I known there was going to be a break to begin with, but…I didn't. So we sat. At least I got some time to rest. And now I was walking back with Meg. Sora and the others had gone on ahead.

"So you really don't know why they made us stop?" I asked Meg on the way back into the Coliseum. Because not only did Phil tell us to do something else for a while, he made us go _somewhere_ else to do it. What could they have been doing that they didn't want anyone to see?

"No, that stubborn goat wouldn't tell me anything. Which is why I'm worried," she answered bitterly. She looked upset so I decided to keep quiet for a while. "But hey, don't let me get you down. You've still got some more matches to fight," she added after a second.

Not knowing how else to respond, I said, "Thanks."

After that we walked in silence, but for once, it was a comfortable silence. We entered through the doors and made our way to the stands where Meg was going to sit.

"Herc told me about how you're fighting to save your brother. I think that's really brave," she suddenly spoke up once again.

I stared in surprise at her. "I, um, well…yeah. He means a lot to me," I finally managed to say.

Whatever Meg was going to say in reply was cut short by Phil yelling at me to get ready.

"Sorry, I think I have to go now," I told her before rushing off.

"Give it a rest, I'm here," I said over his shouting. He was standing with his back turned to me beside my sword, which was still on the ground where I had left it.

He turned, looking surprised to see that I was actually standing there. He let out a sigh. "Sorry, alright? We're having some trouble with the barriers and the idiots we hired to fix them don't know what to do."

"Barriers? What barriers?" I asked.

"The barriers that keep the Heartless from getting out while a match is in progress."

My eyes widened. "There are barriers then?"

"Yeah, but during you and Sora's last couple fights, they were acting funny. That's why we got everyone out for a while. It wouldn't be good if Heartless started running around hurting people."

I said, "Oh," in understanding. "Are we still going to be able to fight?"

"We're gonna see in a few minutes. Where's Sora?"

I pointed over to the section of the audience where the trio was gathered.

"Sora!" Phil shouted loudly enough to cause me to flinch. Said boy turned and began running towards us.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You two get ready. We're about to get things started again."

He nodded. "Right."

I bent down to pick up my weapon. _Well, here we go again, _I thought to myself.

Phil himself made the official announcement to the audience a minute later, and everyone settled into their seats and got quiet. Sora and I prepared for what was coming next. Out of the darkness appeared three large, round Heartless. They had to have been at least twice our size. I stood dumbfounded for a moment, then tried coming up with a plan for defeating them. Sora suddenly rushed past me and started striking it with his Keyblade. Good plan. I followed in his footsteps, swinging fast and hard at one. Unfortunately, I didn't consider the possibility of it hitting back, which is exactly what happened. It punched me in the stomach and I was sent flying backwards into the ground.

"Luna!" Sora called, worried.

As much as it hurt, I managed to stand up and send him a sign that I was okay. He went back to his Heartless. I took a deep breath and ran back into battle. I'd have to be more careful about my actions if I didn't want to end up seriously injured. My head was swimming but as long as I knew where my target was, I knew where to hit. Eventually my vision cleared and I was able to swing more accurately, which caused it to die quicker. And it was just my luck Sora had taken out the other two by the time I was done with mine.

"Note to self: next time, don't get hit," I commented after the fight.

"You gonna be okay?" Sora asked, just to be sure.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry."

Match number five came and went quickly enough. There wasn't anything new, just a mixture of everything we'd seen thus far, so we were able to eliminate all the Heartless in a matter of minutes with previously learned strategies.

We'd made it through half of the tournament without much more than a few scratches. If I had been asked, I would've said that things were going pretty well. But I also figured that the second half was going to be a fair amount harder. So I was surprised when in the next match all that showed up was a little blue and yellow creature that vaguely resembled a mushroom. It didn't do anything but stand where it was, looking up at the sky, and occasionally walk around in a circle.

"Um, what do we do with it?" I whispered to Sora.

"I don't really know," he whispered back.

"Then…I'm gonna go poke it." I walked slowly and carefully up to the three-foot tall creature, and stuck my sword out to lightly touch it. It went berserk and disappeared the way it came. I just blinked in confusion. "…Okay then."

After that peculiar incident we took some time to go chat. Sora went straight to Riku and Kairi, and I walked over to Phil, but not before reassuring him that I'd catch up in a minute. I had a question I wanted answered.

"Hey," I said to my trainer. Hercules was with him at the moment and said hello for Phil, who seemed to be busy with something. "How are the barriers doing? Any luck?"

Herc shook his head. "Not really. But since you guys haven't been messing with them, we haven't had much to worry about. Phil here still wants to make sure they don't just stop working at a bad time."

"Makes sense," I said. "Well, good luck." I turned and made my way to my friends like I promised. "Hey guys," I greeted them.

"Hey. What was that all about?" Riku asked. He wasn't one to beat around the bush, that was for sure.

"Oh, nothing. I was just saying hi, checking up."

Kairi laughed. "I think he meant the thing you two were just fighting. Or, well…what _did_ you do to it?"

"Nothing! I barely touched it and it just started freaking out!"

"I think I have seen those before now that I think about it," Sora stated. "But they acted weird then, too."

I smirked. "Well, anyway, let's get back to the ring. Maybe we'll get something fun this time."

We all said our goodbyes and my partner and I headed back to the battleground. On the way there Sora nudged me in the arm and said, "See? I knew you'd have fun."

_Right, because I'm doing this for _fun_._

I kept that comment to myself.

Inside the arena I found my sword and readied myself for battle. Seven clouds of darkness appeared and from them, seven Heartless. They were similar to the helmet-wearing ones we'd fought earlier, but differences could be found. I didn't have time to worry about those differences. I charged to swipe at the nearest one and nearly fell flat on my face when another Heartless materialized before me. It floated above the ground and so did the gigantic book that came with it. It lifted the book into the air and after a moment, the other Heartless became surrounded in a glow. They then began to run frantically around the ring, hitting everything but each other. The first few times I swung at them, I missed horribly. Then I tried a timed attack and managed to hit one, but the attack only bounced off.

"I think it's the light!" Sora shouted, jumping out of the path of one of the running Heartless.

"What do you mean?" I yelled back. The same Heartless Sora had dodged had swerved and was now coming towards me. I jumped up and, without thinking, hung in the air until it passed, then landed. "Now why didn't I think of that earlier?" I said to myself.

"Try destroying the book," he said next.

Book? I looked around until I found the lexicon-wielding Heartless hiding in a corner, away from all the madness. I ran forward a couple steps, then jumped and flew over to my target. I brought my sword down on top of it as hard as I could as I landed. The creature fell away from its book, leaving it unattended long enough for me to kick it towards Sora so I could take out its master. Sure enough, the light protecting the runners disappeared. I hit the closest one to me, and watched it fall over and disappear into the darkness. Finally, we were getting somewhere. All that were left were the six remaining Heartless, which would be a piece of cake now.

"Well, that was annoying," I said at the end of it.

"Don't look now, but I don't think we're done yet."

"Huh?" I looked in the same direction Sora was. My mouth dropped some when I saw more darkness spawning. But, we just finished the match didn't we? No way was it time for the next one already. I scanned the crowd for Phil and saw him, Hercules, and Meg all talking heatedly about something. My eyes narrowed in thought.

_Something's not right._

It didn't help when the shocked expressions appeared on their faces. They were all staring at us. Or, behind us?

"Luna, look out!" Sora called.

I turned just in time to get tackled by a black creature with long antenna and glowing eyes. I screamed as I fell hard to the ground. As expected, pain shot through me, starting with my head. Sora was there in a flash to destroy the Heartless with his Keyblade. I sat up, trying to hold my head in place. Reality was distorting itself as the dizziness set in. However, I was able to make out something of a purplish color. I could tell that it was big. Very big. Was this what they were so shocked about?

The purple thing took a ground-shaking step in my direction. Unable to stand, I pushed myself backwards with my feet until I hit something that felt like a wall. Only, there was no wall. Oh great, it must have been the barriers. Now what was I going to do? I had to force myself to look away from the giant thing hovering over me long enough to look for Sora. He was fighting off some more of the things that attacked me.

So basically, I was trapped in the shadow of a monster with no way out, and the only other person with the means of changing that was a little busy.

_This is not good._

* * *

Chapter Nineteen complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

The monster let out a roar and prepared to step forward again, and this time its foot was positioned to come straight down on me. I uselessly pushed myself even further back, but couldn't go anywhere because of the invisible wall. I couldn't have hidden my fear even if I had wanted to. Luckily- and the irony of calling it that was enough to make me want to puke-, I was too paralyzed to even think about the outcome of all this.

Then the gravity suddenly disappeared, and all the pressure I had been putting on the wall behind me became the force that caused me to fall so hard. I would've spent a minute or two to try and figure out what had just happened, but instead I quickly moved away from the giant foot coming down on me and barely escaped with my life. My breath was still caught in my throat even after I realized that I was safe. My senses came back to me soon enough though and I scrambled to get to my feet, but only so I could lift myself into the air. I looked around for somewhere to go so I wouldn't have to stay in that spot. Sora was still fighting off the Heartless, so started towards him, but about halfway there stopped as the thought just occurred to me.

_If the barriers are gone, then nothing's there to keep the monster in. _

This was what Phil was afraid of.

Phil! He'd know what to do! Now I just needed to find him. As I searched the crowd, I saw that everyone was rushing out of the Coliseum in frenzy. I knew they were screaming, but the ringing in my ears was enough to drown them out. Finally I spotted him over by Riku and Kairi and flew over to them as quickly as I could for being in the shock that I was.

"Guys!" I shouted at them. Riku was the first to notice me coming, and pointed it out to the others. "Phil! What's going on?" I asked, panicked.

In a rush he explained, "We figured out that the barriers were tampered with, and that's why they were acting strange, but now we don't know who did it. And we don't know why that Heartless is here either." He pointed to the tusked monster that almost crushed me. Wait, that thing was a Heartless, too? I didn't bother asking for clarification, seeing as there were more important things at the moment.

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Kairi asked with a confused look.

"How do we stop it?" Riku asked instead, ignoring her question.

Phil shook his head. "I don't know. I sent Herc to try and take it down, and Meg's getting everyone out of here." I spotted both of them, doing exactly what he said. Meg was over by a side entrance filing people quickly and quietly out of the Coliseum. Hercules was leading the giant Heartless into a corner on the opposite side of said entrance. And then I saw Sora in the mass of black enemies. More and more of them kept rising from the darkness no matter how many he destroyed.

I bit my lip, struggling to form a single decent thought. What were we going to do?

Riku answered my question. "You two stay here. I'm going to go help Sora. If anything, we can stop those Heartless." With that, he jumped up and ran off.

"Wait, Riku!" Kairi shouted after him, even though he couldn't hear her anymore. She sighed, irritated. "They just don't listen, do they?" The next thing I knew, she was sprinting in the direction Riku had gone, summoning her own Keyblade. How was she able to do that? How were _any_ of them able to do that; just stand up and fight when they needed to?

I didn't realize how long I had been quiet until Phil spoke up again. "Those are some of the most stubborn, impulsive, one-track minded kids I've ever met. But they're always there to protect and look out for their friends."

"Huh?" came my involuntary voice of surprise.

"And they look like they could use some help."

I whipped my head down at him. "What? But I… You've seen how much I can do. And I almost just got killed by-"

"Save your breath, kid, it was just a suggestion. And you're right; I have seen what you can do, and that's not much."

_Geez, thanks for the pep talk._

"But you care about them, too," he unexpectedly continued.

I didn't say anything to that. I suddenly knew where he was going with this. Now I just waited for him to say it.

"You do care about them, don't you?" he asked.

I nodded slowly, observing the fight from a distance. Sora jumped and slashed through a Heartless on the way down. Riku made one simple slice through his surrounding area, destroying three of them at a time. Kairi stepped away from one of their opponent's attacks and stabbed forward at it. But the Heartless were multiplying too quickly for them alone to make much progress.

"So why are you still here?"

They needed my help, and I was going to do whatever I could to protect my friends. Without answering his question, I took off towards the cluster of Heartless and the three Keyblade wielders in the middle of it. Only halfway there did I realize that I didn't have my sword. I couldn't even remember the last time I had it. The inevitable frustration rapidly swelled up inside me. I shut my eyes and tried to relax; tried to remember where my weapon was, but the battle only a few yards away was a nagging thought that wouldn't let me concentrate. I couldn't block out the whispers of the audience, or the growling of the monster-sized Heartless. Too much was happening and it was making my head hurt. And while I was standing there doing absolutely nothing, my friends were actually fighting to everyone safe. I hated being so useless!

There was suddenly a bright flash that startled me out of thinking; a flash that seemed to come from…me? When the light was gone, something like a sword was left in my right hand. It wasn't the sword Phil had lent me, obviously. It was smaller, and lighter, and it was shaped different. This one's blade was a bluish silver color, the hilt was shaped like a crescent with a little white jewel embedded in it, and the handle was sort of-

Wait a second, where did it even come from?

I dropped the thing like it was on fire and moved away from it. The moment it hit the ground, though, the light flashed again and it was back in my hand. I just stood there gawking at it.

A girl's cry sounded in the distance. I recognized the voice immediately as Kairi's, which caused my head to shoot up. She was just beginning sit up from her apparent fall, but didn't seem to be hurt, which I was grateful for. I looked back down at the strange weapon. Well, if I couldn't get rid of it, I might as well use it. And with that decision made, I finally continued towards my friends.

"You, too?" Riku asked upon seeing me.

"What, you're not happy to see me?" I shot back in half seriousness.

"It's dangerous out here, especially since we're in an open area. You sure you're gonna be okay?" He stopped fighting long enough for me to send him a look of unyielding determination. That was what I was going for, anyway. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had come out more like stubborn pout. In any case, he nodded his approval and the struggle resumed. I found the sword surprisingly easy to carry considering the circumstances, and the Heartless weren't difficult, either. They acted very similar to the very first Heartless we had fought and therefore, I knew how to handle them.

"Hey, Luna, where'd you get that?" Sora asked after a few minutes. I assumed he meant my sword.

"I have no idea, but can we ask questions later?" I replied. It looked like he had something else he wanted to ask, but he complied to my request and nodded instead.

"Guys, I don't think these things are going to stop," Kairi said next, watching yet another Heartless form before her. I was beginning to think she was right.

"What are we supposed to do then? We can't _not_ fight them," Sora remarked, and with a good point.

"If we can get the barriers back up, maybe we won't have to," I suggested.

"That's right; they won't have anywhere to go," Riku said thoughtfully. He paused a moment, then rushed away from the battle without an explanation.

I turned to cut through a lunging Heartless before looking curiously after my departing friend. He ran up to Phil, who hadn't moved from the spot where we were talking. Each said something to the other, then Riku darted towards the door to the vestibule, disappearing inside. Well, there wasn't any use in worrying about what he was doing. Besides, I had other matters to attend to.

Five minutes later, the three of us hadn't even made a dent in the ever-growing amount of Heartless, and I was becoming tired. Still, I forced myself to keep going and hoped that if I had a breaking point, I wouldn't reach it. But as fate would have it, I was tackled to the ground again by another dark creature. I gritted my teeth as I pushed it off me with the side of my sword. I stood up and regained my balance as quickly as I could. Then I swung hard to the side to shove it away. To my surprise, it only went a few feet before coming to an abrupt halt with an invisible wall. The barriers? I finished the Heartless off and laid a hand flat against the surface I couldn't see. On the other side- inside- Sora and Kairi seemed puzzled as well.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a figure heading towards me. I looked up to find Riku stop about ten feet away, wave his hand in the opposite direction, and shout, "Come on!" He then proceeded to run in the direction of Hercules and the monster of a Heartless he was fighting. Confused as I was, I obediently followed him, electing to fly rather than run. When I caught up, I asked, "What did you do? Did you fix the barriers?"

He continued running as he answered. "Can we ask questions later?"

I didn't know how else to answer but in agreement, so I nodded and looked back ahead at our next task: bringing down the monster.

* * *

Chapter Twenty complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	21. Chapter Twenty One

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty-One

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

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"Do you have some sort of plan?" I called to Riku as we neared our next battle. I figured there was some reason he pulled me away from the last one.

"I have a theory," he answered. "If we can destroy this thing, then I think that'll stop the other Heartless from spawning."

It wasn't _exactly_ a plan, but it would have to do as it was all we had.

Up ahead I observed the scene before me in detail. Hercules was in the process of stabbing one of the purple beast's legs. The monster cried out in pain and attempted to kick its attacker, but Herc rolled away in time.

Here was what I didn't understand: as big as the thing was, how come it didn't do anything but walk around? It could have easily caused some damage, or hurt people, or _something_. So why didn't it? It just didn't make sense. I remembered what Phil had said about it coming from nowhere. Someone had intended for that thing to do something, otherwise they wouldn't have let it loose in the first place. But who would do that, and why?

_Ugh, so many questions, but no answers. _I rolled my eyes at myself.

"Hey, need some help?" Riku suddenly asked. Wait, what?

When I pulled myself out of my thoughts, I realized that we directly under the creature's head. Being so close to it all of a sudden was a little unnerving, especially since I hadn't been expecting it.

"Sure, anything to get rid of this," Hercules answered.

… Oh, okay, I understood now. I figured that made it my turn to speak up.

"So do we have a plan yet?" I asked again. A small part of me was trying to be annoying. That didn't go over so well.

"Not since you asked thirty seconds ago," Riku shot back at me.

I didn't have a comeback for that and both of us knew it. That annoyed me. Anyway, I refocused my attention on the Heartless before us, attempting to think of a plan of my own. We could've just simply started attacking it, which would have been preferable, but a strategy was probably the best way to go for now…

I decided to ask another question. "Does it have a weak point?"

"It doesn't like its feet to be hit," Hercules responded. "That's all I know."

I took a breath and then let it right back out. "Then we'll start there." Without waiting for them, I charged forward and slashed across the top of the giant foot to see what would happen. A roar reverberated through the Coliseum as the monster fell to its knee. Huh, and I barely even touched it. So what would happen if we did the same thing to the other feet? Would it completely fall or-

"Luna!" an irritated voice shouted. Before I could even tell what was happening, Riku was beside me, pushing an oncoming paw away from us with his Keyblade. When the monster let up again, he turned back to me and said, "You've really got to learn to pay attention."

I opened my mouth to defend myself, as I had an actual excuse this time, but really, what would the point arguing have been? I shook off that thought and told Riku and Hercules what I had been thinking about. Since nobody else had a better plan, we decided to experiment with mine. Riku took the other front foot, and Hercules and I took the two in the back. Each of us stabbed through the darkly colored skin, which caused yet another deafening roar of anger and pain. I made sure to jump away from its writhing this time to avoid being hit. Geez, It was making up for all of its calmness right now. I flew around to Riku to observe from the front what was happening. Even if his eyes were partly covered by silver hair, I could still tell that he was staring hard at it, thinking. And if my experience with him meant anything, I knew that I wasn't going to like whatever came out of his mouth next.

"Look at its eyes," Riku commanded. I did as he said and looked up to see that the beast's eyes were closed.

"So?" I asked in confusion. I didn't get it- what was that supposed to mean?

"I think we finally made it mad," he replied flatly.

"That's probably not a good thing."

"Probably not."

And then it finally occurred to me that I had yet to see Hercules come back out from behind the monster. I wasn't even able to get the question out before I noticed the movement from the corner of my eye. My head tilted upward to find that the warrior hero had climbed up onto the monster's back. I was utterly perplexed. How on _earth_ could that be a good idea?

"What are you doing?" I shouted at him. I waited a moment, but received no answer. I sighed in frustration. _Guess I'll have to go find out._ Dropping my sword, and not even bothering to wonder why it didn't come back to me this time, I jumped up and floated over the monster's head, past the black horn perched atop it, and came to a stop next to the crazy man in question.

"What are you doing?" I asked again. "What if this thing decides to stop playing nice? It can't stay dormant forever, and when it blows up, you could get hurt."

He gave no sign that he had heard a word I just said, which angered me even more.

"Are you listening?" I practically yelled at him. I never got the chance to really get mad at him, though, because my next words were cut off by a dull glowing from the side that caught my attention. I whipped my head in the direction it was emanating from, and instantly forgot all about being mad. The single dark horn I had just noticed was shining with a light that rapidly got brighter and brighter.

"Luna, get out of here!" Hercules finally barked. He suddenly lunged forward at the horn and gripped it with both hands, apparently trying to break it off. Of course I was still floating in the same place, having ignored my order. I couldn't decide whether to go help Hercules, or Riku- which one needed my help more? My question was answered when the light from the horn suddenly intensified and repelled the person trying to stop it. Hercules was thrown backwards and landed hard in the mess of violet fur. I moved as quickly as my shocked body would allow me and tried to help him up.

"Why are you still here? It's going to get dangerous," he said, his voice a little strained.

I smiled. "Because I care about my friends. I'm not about to leave, so don't even try."

My answer must've worked for him because he let the subject drop. Now was a good time to decide how to make the strange light go away. It was starting to freak me out.

Hercules was thankfully able to stand up, which meant that he wasn't hurt, but I made him rest for a second just in case. Down below Riku had started hitting the creepy horn with his Keyblade, so he didn't need to fight right now anyway. But after a minute the same thing happened again. As soon as Riku got near it, the light would push him away. This was getting to be annoying. But else could we do?

Well, I hadn't taken a turn yet. Ugh, but I had left my sword back on the ground. I really needed to stop doing that. I stood up anyway and tried finding it from above, but it just wasn't there. How did I keep losing these things? First Phil's, now this one, and it still didn't know where it had come from to begin with! I stared at my right hand, cursing it for being so stupid as to let go of my only means of fighting. I shut my eyes as another light appeared directly in front of me. This one, however, disappeared moments later and in my hand was the sword. Again. My jaw dropped. Wow, was I lucky or what? Or, was this something more than luck?

"Interesting sword," Hercules commented. "What do you plan to do with it?"

I shrugged. "Whatever I can." With that I flew towards the horn and, summoning as much strength as I could, swung and impacted with the light, which tried to push me away as well. I resisted the best I could, holding my breath to keep my focus. I couldn't let this thing win.

Hercules was suddenly there again with his hands on the horn, pulling with obvious effort. And I certainly wasn't going to deny help. Another minute later, Riku was also there with his Keyblade pushing against it. I hoped that our combined strength would be enough to stop…whatever was going to happen.

The beast started shaking. Softly at first, but it quickly turned into violent tremors that shook the shook the ground. The three of us realized too late that we should have gotten away while we could. One last roar came from the distressed creature before the light we were fighting against became too much for us to control and exploded. The force from the blast sent us flying away from the corner we had been in.

An eternity passed in the single moment where my body collided with the wall on the other side on the Coliseum. Everything moved in slow motion. My eyes involuntarily went wide, trying to focus on the world that my head was blurring. A shrill ringing endlessly filled my ears. My aching body wanted so badly to give in to the darkness. What else could I do but oblige?

Everything went black.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-One complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty-Two

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

_

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_

My eyes fluttered open for a brief second before a way-too-bright light above me forced them shut again. And then when I tried to move my arm, the pain was instantaneous and strong. I winced and relaxed the muscle, but as consciousness took over, the pain only got worse. I couldn't pinpoint the source as everything imaginable was hurting.

I heard a gasp, then the shuffling of feet in my direction. "Guys, come here, she's awake!" a frantic and excited, and feminine, voice yelled, which didn't exactly soothe the throbbing in my head.

"Hey, not so loud," I choked out. I tried opening my eyes again, this time slowly, to see Kairi hovering over me. More footsteps sounded in the distance, becoming louder as they neared us.

I pushed myself into a sitting position as gently as I could as more people filed into the room. When I looked around, I realized that we were in the spare room that Phil had let us use. I was sitting on something hard and flat, but it wasn't a bed. It felt more like a table or something. When did I get here?

"Hey, Luna. Glad to see you're awake," Sora said, walking up beside Kairi.

"Yeah, you really gave us a scare," Hercules said.

"No kidding. But you're lucky that you weren't hurt any worse than you are," I heard Phil say next.

"How are you feeling?" Riku asked.

Too many people were talking at one, which caused their voices to run together in my head, so I couldn't think straight. And they were all beginning to crowd around me, which made it even worse. I had never been very claustrophobic, but at that moment I felt like I was going to throw up. And then Meg cut in.

"Alright, that's enough guys. Give the girl some room to breathe," she said, pushing her way through the cluster of curious people. I would have thanked her for it, too, if I hadn't been so confused. I was in a lot of pain, and they were all so concerned, but I couldn't seem to remember what exactly had happened. Everything was fuzzy, and I couldn't focus on any detail for too long without making my head hurt more. I felt so drained of energy.

I propped myself up against the wall behind me and decided to ask. "What happened?" My voice was rough, like it hadn't used it in a while.

Everyone's eyes flickered with some version of shock, but Kairi was the first one to say something. "You don't remember?"

I gave her no reply.

She turned her head towards the rest of the crowd, probably trying to figure out how to handle this.

"Are you sure?" Sora asked.

"I remember…a bright light, but that's it."

"That must be the explosion," Hercules explained.

My gaze went straight to him. "What?"

"The monster you guys were fighting. We think it was some sort of bomb. And, well, it sort of went off," Sora told me.

I just stared blankly at him for a moment. "Monster?" It…sounded familiar. Wait, that's right, the Heartless. I should have been able to remember that.

"Should we tell her?" Kairi whispered to someone, but I wasn't paying attention to whom.

"Tell me what?" I asked suspiciously.

Riku volunteered to answer this time. "When the Heartless exploded, you hit your head and passed out. We tried to wake you up, but you've been out since yesterday."

My breath caught in my throat when I heard that. "I… I what?" I had been sleeping for a whole day? "No…" I didn't want to accept that.

"Hey, we're just glad you're okay. You hit your head pretty hard," Meg said sympathetically. But it didn't help.

"Yeah, but that seems to be the only thing you hit. I can't for the life of me figure out how you came away with nothing more than a concussion," Phil mused.

I scoffed hoarsely. "Right, I'm so lucky." I slumped back against the wall, clenching a fist. It hurt, but I didn't care. I was too frustrated to care. I couldn't make myself think about anything besides the fact that I only had a few days left to find Ciro- how many did we have, anyway? Three?- and I spent one of them sleeping. How pathetic…

I had to force back the tears that I could feel coming and swallow the anger that was beginning to rise.

_There's nothing you can do about it now. Just move on._

With one final breath, I relaxed and faced the crowd. "We need to leave."

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

I was about to answer when Meg spoke up again. "I think that's our cue to let you guys talk. Come on, boys," she said to Phil and Hercules. After some resistance on Phil's part, she managed to drag both of them out of the room and close the door with an apologetic smile. Thank you, Meg.

"We need to leave this world," I continued after a second.

"But what about the Starlite? Did you get any further?" the redhead asked again.

I looked away. "No, I didn't. I found some weird sword, but no power," I said, recalling that strange weapon that had just appeared in my hand apparently the day before.

"Oh, yeah!" Sora shouted. "That reminds me. I'm glad you found your necklace. I just realized that you got it back." He sheepishly scratched the back of his spiky head.

I gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

"The Starlite? You weren't wearing it for a while yesterday; I thought you dropped it or something. But you…" he trailed off, seeing that I had no clue what he was talking about.

"I never dropped it." I held the little, black star in my hand protectively.

"Now that you mention it, I don't think I saw you wearing it while we were fighting, either," Riku chimed in with an observation of his own.

My gaze traveled back and forth between the two of them. They couldn't be right. I'd never taken it off; never let it out of my sight. It had been around my neck the whole time…hadn't it?

"And what about that sword? Where did it go?" Riku continued.

I hadn't realized it before now, but I had no idea. That I could've dropped somewhere.

"So you lost the Starlite and found a sword, then you found the Starlite and lost the sword," Kairi said, summarizing what they had said. "Think those two could be connected?" she asked the boys.

"That is a little convenient," Sora said. "And it makes sense."

"But what would that mean? Do you think it can actually change into something else? That's a bit…bizarre, isn't it?" I challenged their theory.

"As opposed to flying or moving through solid objects? Everything we've found out about that necklace has been bizarre," Riku said.

I opened my mouth with the intention of pointing out something that contradicted his statement. Except he was right. I closed my mouth and leaned my head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling. "Look, I don't where that sword came from, or where it went. Maybe it has something to do with the Starlite, maybe it doesn't. All I know is that I can't stay here any longer. We only have three days left. Did you guys know that? Three days left to figure this whole stupid thing out. I just want to leave. At least then I'll feel like I'm actually trying."

Several minutes passed but I never got any reply or comment. If I closed my eyes I was sure I would've felt like I was dreaming. Or having a nightmare.

"Hey, Luna," Kairi's voice finally came. I looked up at her. "This is your journey. We're just here to help, so if you want to leave, we'll follow you." She gave me that trademark smile of hers.

"Whatever you decide," Sora added, stepping forward.

I almost expected Riku to say something, but I knew him too well for that. He gave his own form of agreement, and I laughed to myself. "Thanks, that means a lot," I said with a somewhat normal voice. Hey, maybe I was getting better. I stretched out my arms, finding that they didn't hurt as much to move. My head had stopped hurting, too. Everyone must have figured out what I was doing, because they took a step back to give me room to try and stand. I swung my legs off the side and let them hang there for a moment, then pushed myself into a standing position. And with the help of the Starlite, I was floating a couple inches off the ground. It hurt to hold my legs straight, but I managed to stay upright.

"Phil was right; it really is a miracle you're okay," Riku commented.

"Do you need some help?" Kairi offered, extending a hand towards me.

I shook my head, ignoring the dull aching in various parts of my body. It'd have to go away at some point, right? I resolved to forget about it until it did. "No, let's just go." I started towards the door, happy that this conversation was over.

Nobody said anything until we got outside, when we were amidst the rest of the people of this world walking about and talking with each other. I fell quickly and silently from the air to the ground so as not to attract attention to myself.

"Well, I guess if we're leaving now, we should at least go say bye to Herc and the others," Sora suggested.

It took a few minutes for me to agree, since I had wanted to avoid another long farewell session like we gone through in Never Land, but I gave in when Sora's whining made my head start hurting again. The walk through the winding brick streets up to the Coliseum, which is where we unanimously decided they had to be, was comfortable for the most part. We talked about simple subjects, such as the weather and an outfit Kairi saw in the window of one of the shops we passed by, and I threw in a comment when necessary, but my mind was on other things. At the moment, I was thinking about where we were going to go next, which was rather pointless considering I didn't know anything about these worlds. But from now on I needed to work twice as hard as before. I wouldn't let another second be wasted while Ciro was in trouble.

Finally, I spotted the large, intricate pillars that made up the entrance to the Coliseum in the distance. Sora and Riku pushed open the heavy doors that led to the lobby-like area, where we found Hercules talking to Meg. Other than them two, the building was empty.

"No Phil?" I asked as we neared them.

"He's checking out the damage those Heartless caused yesterday," Hercules explained.

"I think the poor guy might have a heart attack if this place falls apart again," Meg added with a smirk.

"Oh, well, we just came to say goodbye," Kairi said politely. I pretended to be distracted by the ground.

"Yeah, it's time for us to keep going," Sora said.

"Off so soon?" Hercules asked in a tone that suggested he was familiar with the situation. "Well, it was great to meet you guys. And good luck with finding your brother, Luna."

I looked back up at him and smiled. "Thanks. You guys have been a lot of help. And could you thank Phil for me, too?"

"Sure, but I think we'd better wait until later, when he's less likely to be in a bad mood," Meg answered.

I let out a small, forced laugh, hoping that we could leave now. Luckily, Riku granted my wish by bringing it up first. "I guess we should go now," he said. "Luna?"

"Yeah, I guess we should." Finally.

I stuck my hand out, but couldn't remember for a moment what I was supposed to with it. I knew it had something to do with the Starlite…

Oh, yeah. Sora took my hand first, then Riku took his, and Kairi took ours.

I absentmindedly began to focus the energy radiating from the necklace around us, watching the protective glow form around our little circle of unity. I was the first to lift off the ground, but the others were soon to follow. Higher and higher up we went, and the higher we got, the faster we moved. I kept my eyes straight ahead, picturing in my head our destination. When the sky had faded to black, and stars were beginning to appear, I chanced a backward glance. We were far enough away that I was able to see the world as a whole.

_So long…_

After another minute of flying through the endless abyss of space, we decided it was safe and broke apart. I immediately went back to my thinking, this time referencing back to the conversation we had earlier.

_If that sword actually came from the Starlite, then what triggered it? Something had to have caused it. _And was it possible to do it again?

"Luna?" Riku's voice cut in. But I shut him out and continued my train of thought.

I remembered feeling so…useless. I was mad at myself for just standing there like an idiot while my friends were fighting. Maybe it was that feeling that caused the sword to appear. It was worth a shot.

I shut my eyes and tried to recreate the situation in my head. Images of Keyblades being swung in every which direction, impaling the dark creatures that stood in their path, flashed through my mind. The wielders' faces reflected their concentration and determination. And in the background stood a girl, frozen in place by her own foolishness. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes as she watched helplessly from the sidelines, anger clouding her thoughts.

_That's it…_

"Hey, Luna," Sora called this time, louder than Riku. "What are you doing?"

I almost flinched at the interruption, but managed to stay focused. _Ugh, can't they just be quiet and let me think for a second? This is hard enough!_

I sensed it happen rather than saw it. It was the familiar voiceless sound in the back of my head that told me I had done it. From behind the curtain of darkness, I felt a bright light, and sure enough, when I opened my eyes, the little sword was resting calmly in my hand. I wrapped my fingers around it. "Huh, guess that answers that question," I said to myself. But I couldn't help but wonder what had caused it this time. It wasn't the same feeling; not exactly. Yeah, I was mad, but not at myself…

I looked up to meet the curious, if not shocked, stares of my two friends. Oops. It must have been because I was mad at them… I'd have to keep that to myself.

"Uh, sorry, I was trying something." I looked back down at my sword. "Guess it worked."

"So…you figured out how to summon it?" Sora asked.

"Um, sure, let's go with that." I flashed them a smile in hopes of moving on, and quickly.

"Hm?" Riku muttered to himself, looking around. He stopped, facing the opposite direction, and sighed. "Kairi!" he called. Only then did I realize that she wasn't with us.

I followed his gaze to the girl who had obviously not heard him. She was floating off through the endless abyss of space around us. The sight of this brought on a wave of déjà vu, but then I remembered that this wasn't the first time it had happened. She had done this every time we'd been up here, hadn't she? Gotten distracted by something…

Sora and I tried calling her, too, but she didn't seem to hear us, either. Or maybe she was just ignoring us.

"Maybe one of us should go after her. If she gets too close to a world, the gravity could suck her in," I recommended.

"I'll do it," Sora volunteered.

There weren't any objections to this, so we watched as he chased after Kairi, calling her name every couple seconds, even though that seemed to have no effect on her. Even when he pulled on her arm, she didn't turn around, didn't stop. Wherever she was going, she was intent on getting there. I was beginning to worry- should we have gone after her, too? When Sora gave us the sign to come help, both Riku and I made our way towards them.

"She said she wants to check something out," Sora said.

"Check what out?" I asked. Detours were certainly not part of my new schedule.

"I don't know, and she won't tell me."

"Just give me a second. There's something about that world over there that keeps bothering me, and I just want to get close enough to check it out," Kairi told us, without specifying which, out of the dozens of worlds in the direction we were facing, one she was talking about.

"Kairi, we don't have time for that," Riku said, holding her by her shoulder.

"I know. And I tried to ignore it, but I just have this weird feeling about it." She tried to break free from his grasp, but failed.

"What do you mean? And which world?" I asked again.

With one, hard jerk she managed to release herself from Riku and was off quicker than he could grab her again. "Come on; I'll show you!" she shouted.

There wasn't anything else we could do but follow her, so that's what we did. It took us the next few minutes to catch up, and that was only because she stopped for a second.

"This one!" Kairi announced, pointing at the world directly in front of us.

Sora slowed down as he observed it, then his eyes widened in recognition. "Hey, I know this place!"

"Yeah…" Riku agreed.

"It just seems so familiar. What is it?" Kairi asked, turning her head from side to side to look at each boy.

Looking at the world like this, when we were so close that I could the top of the broken castle poking through the clouds, it was familiar to me, too. Like I had seen it in one of those picture books we had when I was younger. Or maybe from one of the stories Ciro told me at night to help me go to sleep. I was getting a headache again from staring too long, and yet, I couldn't stop. Then the words just came out of my mouth by accident. "Let's go."

Kairi's head whipped in my direction. She had that excited puppy look on her face. "Really?"

I nodded distractedly, but was fully aware that I was moving forward again. "Hey, what did you guys say this world was called?" I must have zoned out when they said it before.

"Radiant Garden."

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

Yes, this took me three weeks to write. I know. I'm sorry. I've just had so many projects going on in and outside of school lately, that any free time I had was spent procrastinating writing this. And when I wasn't procrastinating, I had writer's block. Horrible, horrible writer's block T.T

Anyway, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, since I won't see you guys again until 2011 ;)


	23. Chapter Twenty Three

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty-Three

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

The flick of a light switch caused the single bulb in normally dark basement to brighten. I looked up at it from where I was sitting in the corner. It had only been used a couple times, including now, since I was brought here, and each time, it meant that the man called Nero was about to give me worse news than usual, and he wanted to be able to see my face clearly for it. I clenched my fist, preparing myself to deal with the monster that walked in.

"Hello, Ciro," he said coolly.

"Whatever you have to say, make it quick. I don't have the energy to put with you right now." It must have been at least two o'clock in the morning, but I couldn't sleep. I never could. Nonetheless, my body couldn't handle so much deprivation from rest, and I was now taking its toll.

A scowl spread over his half-covered face. "You don't order me around. Or have you forgotten: I can still kill you anytime I want. So I wouldn't suggest making me mad."

I rolled my eyes at the threat, and turned away.

"Anyway, what you said the other day, about not being prepared, got me thinking. I felt I was going much too easy on Luna, so I decided to challenge her a little. After a talk with the doctor, we found her on a world that just so happens to specialize in tournaments. And it seems your sister decided to enter in one. So what better time to release a bunch of Heartless than during a match?"

I inhaled sharply at that. _Heartless_. I hadn't heard that word in a long time- not since my parents were alive. _Vicious creatures born of the darkness in someone's heart. _And he had sent these after Luna? I angrily looked back up at him. "Why?" I spat out. "If she gets hurt, aren't your plans ruined?"

"Quite the contrary. She won't get hurt, at least not much, because she has the Starlite." He leaned casually back against a wall, crossing his arms in front of himself. "And if you're worried, don't be. She came out of the battle alive."

"I don't need your reassurance!" I yelled, despite my lack of energy. But it was a lie. Truthfully, I needed all the reassurance I could get, even from him. Luna was just a little girl. She needed someone to keep her safe- she needed _me_. And I needed to know she was okay.

"Oh, really? Would you rather I tell you that the only reason my Heartless didn't kill her was because of the Starlite?"

Of course my answer was no, but I didn't say it. I kept my cold stare fixed on him.

"I didn't think so." He paused before adding, "The truth hurts, doesn't it?"

More silence.

He stood straight up again, and turned to leave, pausing with his hand on the light switch. "Ah well, it's not my problem. If you don't want my pity, then I simply won't offer it. But when Luna gets here, I'll be sure to tell her how rude you've been to me these last few weeks. It's too bad, though. She's such a nice girl. I don't think she'd like hearing more bad news before she watches you die."

My hands began trembling with anger. "Don't you dare talk about her," I whispered dangerously. "I don't care if I die. But I won't let you hurt her. I won't let you win."

He remained statue-still for a moment. I waited for him to say something, but he never did. And the next thing I knew, I was sitting alone in the dark again.

I sat there for a few minutes in quiet shock. My nerved were frayed and I realized that I was suddenly felt very tired. Not knowing what else to do, I fell back against the hard, cold concrete, shut my eyes, and for the first time in days fell asleep.

* * *

It was probably a stupid decision to go to this _Radiant Garden _place, but, well, that's what happened. To say that I felt _drawn_ there by some invisible force would have been an overstatement (however, I suspected that was what Kairi's reason for taking us here was). I simply felt this overwhelming need to go there the moment I saw it, and so that's what we did. It wasn't like anybody had any objections to do doing so. Riku had looked a little uneasy about it, but knowing him, he probably wouldn't have wanted to talk about it, so I didn't ask. Kairi and Sora, however, were more than happy with the decision.

At the moment, we were getting ready to enter the previously-mentioned world. But as curious as I was, I wasn't about to start rushing. We all calmly and quietly linked hands again, and I took my time making sure we were all safely secured in the soft glow of the Starlite. Then I started forward, dragging the others more than anything behind me. I watched carefully for when I'd have to reactivate its power. I felt the distinct change in gravity almost instantly and didn't waste any time correcting it. Now all that was left to do was land.

As we descended below the clouds, the rest of the world became were clear. Stone streets led up and around most of the city to various sets of houses, and the castle I had seen earlier stood in the middle of it. Or, well, it was half-standing anyway. It looked like it was under construction, or something. I glanced around, taking in the moss-covered stone walls, bright shingled buildings, and the clusters of people moving about their daily lives. And somewhere along the way I realized that I had been expecting all of it.

"Hey, Luna, land over there!" Sora shouted. He nodded over to what looked like a shopping area that, for the moment, was empty enough for us to land in.

"Okay," I shouted back. I made my way over to the spot he had picked out, lowered us to a reasonable height, and let the other three fall the next couple feet to the ground. Each landed with a soft thud, then stood up and faced forward.

"Now what?" Kairi asked.

"Come on! I want to go say hi to Leon and everybody!" Sora declared before promptly taking off down a flight of stairs and through the marketplace.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Who?"

Riku smirked, chuckling to himself. "We might as well go find out."

While catching up to the enthusiastic brunette wasn't exactly a problem for me anymore, I felt like I should stay with Riku and Kairi, so I kept pace with them as we treaded through the town. It wasn't until we had gone up one set of stairs, right back down another, and around a corner that we found Sora standing in front of a house that was tucked in between a small building and a wall. He turned to see us coming and waved us on as he walked up to the door of the house. We stopped behind him as he knocked a few times.

"I'll be right there!" a soft voice from the other side called. A few moments later, the door opened to reveal a woman with a long braid of brown hair, tied back with a red ribbon, and bright green eyes. The only other time I remembered seeing eyes that bright was when I first met Selphie back on Destiny Islands. That seemed like such a long time ago. Then again, it kind of was.

"Oh, hello, Sora. It's good to see you again," the lady said with a smile, bringing me back to the present.

"Sora?" another voice asked from somewhere in the house. I saw a flash of black hair shoot up from behind the nice lady in pink, and then a young-looking, excited face appeared to go with it. "Hey, Sora!" the girl said again. She turned back around and bounced away. "Hey, Leon, Sora's back! And he brought friends!"

"If you were going to stay awhile, you're welcome to come in," Nice Lady said.

Sora nodded. "Sure. Come on, guys," he said to us.

And just like that, we were swept into the small house. Inside there was an extraordinary amount of furniture placed haphazardly around the one-room building, and an even larger supply books, all of which were stacked into five-foot tall piles. Directly ahead of us sat a _huge_, complicated-lookingcomputer that didn't fit in with the old-fashioned house. I found myself gaping involuntarily at the scenery.

As I was looking around, I noticed movement from the other side of the room, and a tall man with an apparent taste for leather emerged from the corner. "Back so soon?" he said with a smirk.

Over to the side, the excited girl was pulling someone else out into the open as well; an older-ish man with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth, who didn't seem to like being pulled. Then Nice Lady stepped back into my vision and began chastising Excited Girl for it.

"Yeah, we're sort of on another mission," Sora answered.

"No Donald or Goofy?"

"No, they went back to their own world a while back with the King."

"So who do you have with you now?" Nice lady interjected politely.

"Oh, these are my friends from back home." Sora stepped out of the way so that we could introduce ourselves.

"Hi, I'm Kairi." She smiled and moved over next to Sora.

"Riku."

And last, but not least… "I'm Luna." I clasped my hands together behind my back and tried to look as pleasant as possible. My composure lasted for all of two seconds until Excited Girl leaped up in front of me, startling me half to death.

"I'm Yuffie!" she shouted enthusiastically.

"Uh, hi," I said back. I sounded more bewildered than I had intended. The girl stepped back after a moment, a huge smile appearing on her face.

"This over here's Leon," she said, gesturing to the man in all the leather. He rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything. "And that's Aerith." She pointed across the room to Nice Lady who only continued to smile. "And this is-"

"I know my own name, thank you very much," interrupted the man with the toothpick. He dropped the annoyed look he had said this with and looked in my direction. "The name's Cid." Excited G- er, Yuffie stuck her tongue out at him.

"Merlin will be back after a while. He went out to run some errands," Leon told Sora, who nodded back.

"So what brings you here?" Aerith asked.

"Well, actually, we're here because of Luna."

My head popped up attentively at the sound of my name. Most everyone in the room was staring at me. I bit my lip. _Guess that means there's no turning back now. _I hadn't been entirely sure about coming here from the beginning, but that gut-feeling I had been expecting to disappear the moment we landed was still there, and with everyone looking at me, practicing my refusal skills weren't exactly a top priority at the moment. I smiled a little. _Here we go again._

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Three complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	24. Chapter Twenty Four

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty-Four

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

"So, how do you want us to help?" Leon asked once I finished explaining everything. I hadn't realized until then just how much had actually happened in the last few weeks.

"Well, I guess the next step is figuring out what else there is to try," I replied. We were all seated in a tight circle made of various chairs found around the small house- Merlin's house. As it turned out, though, we were short one, so I volunteered to just float. I pulled my legs up under me and crossed them, resting my hands comfortably in my lap.

"You said you can…move through solid objects?" he asked, almost disbelievingly.

"That was only once. We're not sure what that was all about, and I haven't really tried it again."

"Maybe Cid can look into it," Aerith suggested.

"Yeah, he's really good with all that technology stuff!" Yuffie agreed.

I looked from one girl to the other, then over at Cid. I hadn't ever really considered the possibility that the Starlite could be some sort of…device. It just seemed too surreal for that. But hey, maybe.

"That thing's small. It should be easy to crack open," the blonde-haired man said with a sarcastic smile.

Woah, wait, _crack open_? A hand flew up to cover the little star hanging as calmly as ever around my neck. "You're not going to…break it, are you?"

"Not if I can help it. All I've got to do is figure out what makes it tick. The answer you need's probably written clear as day inside it."

A small spark of hope instantly formed inside me, and I knew it was showing in my face. "Really?" I asked in a tiny voice. I hadn't expected it to be as simple as that. If he could find something, _anything, _that would at least point us in the right direction, I was willing to let him at least try.

"How long will it take?" Riku asked.

Cid shook his head. "Can't say for sure. It depends on how easy the information is to find. It could be anywhere from an hour to few days, at most."

My chest tightened, as did my grip on the charm, and the thought of hope fled just as quickly as it had come. "We don't have a few days!" I yelled. I sounded pathetically desperate. But, didn't I have the right to be desperate at this point?

"But we're not going to know until we take a look. It's your decision," Leon stated flatly. I relaxed some, causing my already sore arms to fill up momentarily with extra pain. I had to remind myself to ignore it; that it wasn't worth fretting over. But pain's just one of those things that's hard not to think about.

"Come on, Luna. If Cid says he might be able to help, I think you should give him a chance. It could put us one step closer to finding your brother," Sora said, leaning around Kairi to face me.

"Okay," I said after a moment.

Nobody said anything else for a long time, but I couldn't figure out why, so I didn't break the silence.

Eventually, Kairi leaned over and whispered, "I think they're waiting for you to give them your necklace," in my ear.

"What? Oh." Duh. I started to bring the accessory up over my head by the charm I had forgotten to let go of. Then I was abruptly stopped by the thought that this would be the first time I had taken it off…ever. It struck me as strange to be doing so now, but I forced the idea away and continued. I pulled the mess of white hair through the loop of the necklace and balled a fist around the whole of it. Cid got up and stuck his hand out to take it from me. I let one foot fall to the floor so I could lean forward and deliver the item safely.

Not even a moment after the necklace had fallen from my hand had passed when I suddenly found myself falling face-first to the ground, releasing an involuntary shout of shock and pain on impact. I hit my knees first, and then caught myself with my hands before collapsing completely. My vision turned utterly white, and I couldn't remember how to breathe, let alone move. I had never been struck by lightning before, but I imagined _this_ was similar to how it felt. I just lay there, unable to move, as the sounds of chairs scraping against the floor and murmured questions filled the room.

_What just happened?_ I asked myself when the ability of coherent thought returned to me.

I flinched when a hand fell on my shoulder, but the wall of white disappeared, and I counted two, three, four people around me, all bent down. I blinked a couple times, bringing a hand up to my head. I felt so dizzy- like gravity was literally weighing down on me.

"Hey, anybody in there?" the girl closest to me asked. I managed to look up at her without actually moving me head. Yuffie. "I asked you if you're okay." Despite her casual, childish tone, she looked fairly concerned.

I choked something along the lines of 'no' out with some effort, but I wasn't sure what it was. But it must've let them know that I needed help, because they were suddenly trying to lift me up. A pained squeak on my part caused them to stop. Despite all the talking that took place after that, no one seemed quite sure what to do for the next few minutes. Then Leon told Yuffie and Aerith to go look for Merlin, Sora deciding to go with them and help too, because…well, he's Sora.

After a few more minutes, my breathing returned to normal, and so did my awareness of reality. The throbbing in my body, however, did not go away. I was hurting even worse now than when I had first woken up from my full-day nap- and _that _was not a pleasant thought. Nor was it much of a logical one. I had slammed into a wall after an explosion, and the pain from that went away after a few minutes. I fell two feet from the air, and… well, it was bad. Really bad. But it just didn't make any sense. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? The only reasonable explanation I could come up with was that maybe I had hit specific spots that had been hurt before when I fell. Still, something just seemed totally wrong with the situation.

And, of course, there was the matter of _why_ I fell that I didn't even want to think about.

More time passed. Presumably, five minutes. But it was hard to tell.

Kairi sat beside me, as she had decided it was her job to make sure I was all right, or at least make sure I didn't get any worse. Riku stood above her, but I wasn't sure what he was doing. Leon and Cid were talking about something in a place I couldn't see. Something about the castle?

I heard the sound of a door being pushed open, and it was quickly followed by a tangled web of voices.

"Hey, we're back," Yuffie proclaimed upon entry.

"So we can see," Riku said back to her. Sora laughed at the scene as Aerith walked in behind him, and behind her, came someone new. He looked odd enough without the added effect of being turned sideways. He was dressed in all blue, complete with a pointed, blue hat, and carried a suitcase-like bag. The most curious thing, though, was his ridiculously long, gray beard. He must have been really old, not that he acted like it. He moved around with as much energy as, well, someone my age.

"Now will you explain to me why I was dragged here in such a rush?" he said, obviously just a little annoyed.

"We found him just outside the market," Aerith said.

"I was on my way back when these two nearly ran me over. No explanation, and the next thing I know, I'm being pulled back here. By the way, hello, Sora. It's good to see you again." He nodded to Sora.

I found it a bit awkward to be just laying there….on the floor…in the middle of the room…in pain. But what else could I do?

Kairi giggled. "I guess you're Merlin?" she asked him.

"That's quite right. And who might you be?"

"Kairi. I'm Sora's friend."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Kairi."

"Hey, aren't we forgetting something?" Riku asked when a moment of silence came. He gestured downwards, and that was when Merlin finally noticed me.

"Oh, yes. Hello, it's nice to meet you, too. Did you also come with Sora?"

Or, maybe not…

"Uh, yes, but-"

"But we kind of need your help with another one of my friends," Sora interrupted, finishing off Riku's sentence. "This is Luna."

Merlin was quiet for a moment before he said, "My dear, do you realize that you're on the floor?"

I saw Cid drop his head into his palm out of the corner of my eye. The sad thing was that I would've done the same had I been able to.

Yuffie bounced her way into the conversation. "That's the problem. She fell and now she can't really move. Think you can fix her?"

_Great, now I'm broken… _Then again, I wasn't in perfect condition. By this point, I had stopped struggling to sit up or make the aching stop. I found that if I stayed completely still, I wouldn't hurt as much. Horrible pain was better than double horrible pain.

"Well, I can most certainly try. A simple spell ought to do trick." He opened up his bag, and pulled out a…stick. A stick "Stand back, now," he warned everyone. They did as he said and left him to do whatever it was he was going to do. I had the strangest feeling I wasn't going to like it. Merlin muttered a string of unintelligible words, then brought the stick down and tapped me with it. To my total and complete surprise, everything that had been hurting suddenly stopped hurting. Just like that. I wasn't even really aware of it until after a couple seconds had passed, and even then, I was too scared to move.

"You can get up now, Luna. You should be okay," Leon said from across the room. I blinked a few times, then slid my hands slowly across the floor so I could push myself into a sitting position. Shocked, and a little dazed, I twisted my body around to face where Sora, Riku, and Kairi had migrated.

"I-I feel…better," I stuttered.

An amused smirk appeared on Riku's face. "I think she means thank you." I quickly turned to the opposite direction, and nodded to agree.

"Yes, well I'm glad to have been of service." On that note, he put the stick back into the violet-colored bag. I watched him from my place on the floor, which he took notice of. "You may stand now, you know."

I was partly taken aback, but got over it soon enough and started to get up. I felt wobbly as I tried to support myself on my legs. It still seemed like gravity weighed a thousand pounds, and even balancing didn't work. Sora caught my arm as I started to fall again. "What the…" I whispered, confused as ever.

"Is everything okay?" Aerith asked from across the room.

"I don't know," I said automatically. The next thing I tried was to float. I normally didn't have to think much to accomplish the well-practiced task, but no matter how hard I concentrated, I wasn't able to do it. Only when I felt for the little charm around my neck did I remember that I didn't have it- Cid did. Wait, so…

"Hey, can I see my necklace for a second?" I asked. Cid walked over and dropped it into my open hand. Almost instantly I felt the familiar, warm energy flow into my fingers, and I realized that before, the energy had been missing; it had disappeared when I let go of the Starlite. From there, the rest was simple. With a single thought I began to float. Sora let go of me when he saw that I didn't need his help anymore. I let out a laugh of amusement for myself. "Wow, I feel kind of stupid."

"What for?" Yuffie asked.

For the last month, I'd had to rely on the Starlite to get around everywhere. I remembered how scared I was when I first realized that I couldn't walk- that first day on Destiny Islands. Never once had it occurred to me to try and take the necklace off. But my understanding now was that when I had the Starlite on, I couldn't walk. And when it was off, I couldn't fly. It seemed utterly _obvious_ now, and it was ridiculous that I hadn't figured that out before. I wished that I had known it _before_ I fell.

Without answering Yuffie's question, I stopped my train of thought and, bracing myself, gave the necklace back to Cid. I dropped a little more suddenly than I had expected, but still managed to hold myself up. When I felt like I was steady enough for the moment, I looked up and started a new subject.

"So, um, where were we?"

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Four complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

Oops. I did it again. But I have a perfectly legitimate reason for taking so long this time: I was busy playing Re:coded XP If you haven't yet, I recommend getting it. It's a lot of fun :)


	25. Chapter Twenty Five

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty-Five

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

It was just on the verge of sunset when I looked out the open window of Merlin's home. No one had said much about my falling incident after we fixed it, and we had gone straight back to talking about Cid's theory of checking out the Starlite. Shortly after, they started the procedure, and thus began our wait. It had only been an hour since they started, but already I was bored. There was nothing to do in this book-crammed house, unless you liked to read, which I didn't. I turned around.

Leon, Aerith, and Cid were over by the supercomputer, talking in words I didn't understand, and occasionally pointing up at the rapidly changing screen. The Starlite had been put on a scanner of some sort, and they were 'taking apart the data from the inside,' as Leon had put it. What exactly that meant, I didn't know, but they assured me over and over that the actual artifact was perfectly safe. Even so, I couldn't help glancing over curiously every now and then, silently checking their faces for something to tell me that everything was either okay, or terribly wrong. Nothing, so far.

"Luna, you need to stop worrying about it," Riku would say every time he caught me. And he would. Every time.

"I know, I know," I said, but I didn't turn back around for another few seconds. I let out a sigh. "I just wish this wouldn't take so long."

"What do you want to do in the meantime?" Sora asked.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. Why, you got any ideas?"

"You could always try exercising. When's the last time you've had to do any real work on your own?" Riku asked sarcastically.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "I was enjoying that."

Suddenly Kairi spoke up, saying,"We should go for a walk at some point."

"A walk? Why?"

She shrugged but kept her smile. "I don't know. I just think it'd be cool to go look around. Come on, we used to do stuff like that all the time!"

"Yeah, but that was back home. Here we'd have to worry about you falling off ledges, or tripping over rubble," Riku explained.

"Oh, yeah!" Sora interrupted. "By the way, Yuffie, how's the rebuilding coming? It looks like you guys made a lot of progress since the last time I was here," Sora inquired.

Yuffie nodded. "We have. We fixed some of the streets and houses that were in really bad shape a few weeks ago. Now we're trying to figure out where to start on Ansem's old castle. Before we can do anything, though, we've got to go through it and see if there's anything worth keeping. It's cordoned off right now because there's bound to still be a few Heartless roaming around from, well, before."

"Any way we can help?" he continued.

"We were talking about going up there tomorrow when you guys showed up. But since they're still probably going to be busy with Luna's thing, you can come if you want."

Sora smiled. "Sounds good."

"Hey, do you have any idea what they're talking about?" I whispered to Kairi while the others were talking.

"Nope. But there's only one way to find out," she whispered back. "Hey, what are you guys talking about?" she asked loudly.

"Huh? Oh," Sora started with a laugh. "Yuffie and the others are part of this group called the-"

"Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee," Yuffie finished for him. "We're trying to build the place back up to what it used to be."

"What did it used to be?" I asked interestedly.

"Radiant Garden. Before the Heartless destroyed it, and Maleficent turned it into her hideout, this place was really pretty. I was really young, but I still remember." It was strange seeing the sad little smile on the girl's normally enthusiastic face. It made me feel really bad. I recalled that day Sora, Riku, and Kairi told me about how the Darkness devastated all those worlds. Guess this was one of them. But really, this was her _home_. This was all their homes. Never had I missed Galaxy as much as I did in that moment- waking up in my bed at noon, eating breakfast with Ciro, sleeping out by the lake. And then it occurred to me that while I was doing all that, Yuffie was running for her life away from _her_ _home_. I couldn't imagine how sad I'd be if it had been Galaxy that was destroyed. That must have been how she felt.

"Hey, can I come along, too?" I suddenly heard myself asking. "If it's okay, that is."

"Sure. The more the merrier," she answered cheerfully. "Anybody else want to go? We can just turn this into a tour."

"I'd really like to see more of the city," Kairi said.

So, that was a yes from everyone but Riku. We all turned to look at him for his answer. After a moment he sighed and said, "Well, either way you're going to end up dragging me with you, so sure, why not?"

"Great," Sora said. "Now you have something to do tomorrow, Luna."

I stared at him a moment, then laughed when I remembered. After that we were all silent for a while, which for once wasn't uncomfortable, until Yuffie decided to start a new subject by asking, "So, how are you feeling, Luna? Nothing hurts anymore, right?"

"No, I'm all better, mother. Thank you for asking," I said teasingly.

"That was amazing how he just cured you," Kairi said, referring to Merlin.

"Yeah, that was cool. I should ask him about that," I agreed. I had actually been vaguely wondering about it myself since it happened. It was a question that, because my short-term memory had never been very good, I had forgotten about with time and boredom.

"Well here's your chance," Riku commented. Merlin walked right past us, seeming to be looking for something.

I spoke up quickly and loudly to get his attention. "Hey, Merlin, what was that you did, anyway?"

The man stopped and turned. "What?"

"When you healed me."

"I think you've answered your own question."

I paused to think over what had just happened, and then shook my head and said, "Yes, I know, but, I mean, how did you do it?"

He laughed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Well, my dear, I am a wizard after all. Magic is my specialty."

I scrunched my face in confusion. "Wizard? Like, a magician?"

He shook his head furiously. "No, no, magicians are all smoke and mirrors. My magic is real."

I mouthed my understanding. "Cool. Can I see it?"

"Well, I don't see why not. But first I have to find that blasted wand." He began searching around himself some more.

"Isn't that it over on the table?" Sora asked, pointing to the small, wooden piece covered with a white cloth.

Merlin looked in the indicated direction, said, "Ah, yes, thank you, Sora," and strolled over with astonishing ease and grabbed the thin stick up. "Right then. What would you like to see?"

"Do I get a choice?"

"Yeah!" Sora shouted. "I remember some of it."

"You know magic? Why didn't you tell me?" I pouted.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Didn't think about it."

I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, can you do that healing spell again? Knowing that could come in handy later," I asked Merlin.

"Yes, but you'll have to get up. Magic is an art that cannot be learned while sitting." He gestured for me to stand. I smiled enthusiastically and leapt up towards him.

* * *

The next couple hours were spent practicing the supposedly simple spells countless times. According to Merlin, magic could be learned by anyone- Sora proved this true- but I was having…difficulty. Nothing seemed to work right for me in this whole magic business. I wasn't focusing right or something. When we tried skipping the "Cure" spell, moving on to more offensive ones, the only thing I managed to do was set fire to a stack of books. I immediately tried freezing it over, and that actually worked. However, when the ice melted, all that was left was a pile of soggy pages and ash. Needless to say, Merlin wasn't too happy about that. We decided to take a break from the subject for the night.

The sun had set a while ago, and Cid's group was just getting to a stopping point with the Starlite. They reported that they hadn't found anything yet, but they still had a lot of data to analyze, so I shouldn't start worrying…yet.

Now we were figuring out the sleeping arrangements for the night. Yuffie and Leon and the others would need to go back to their own homes soon, and since Merlin really only had one bed, we'd have to find somewhere else to stay. It only made sense that we go with them.

It was Aerith's idea to begin with. Being the sweet and generous woman that she was, she offered to open her home up to as many of us that wished to stay with her. This of course prompted Yuffie's excitement, who of which grabbed Kairi's arm, claiming, "I call the redhead!"After that it was decided that Riku could stay at Leon's place, and Sora at Cid's. It was oh-so-convenient that each home that had been built by the Restoration Committee came equipped with an extra bed for times like this. By default, I was left to stay with Aerith, not that I minded. I felt like I could actually get a good night's sleep around someone as comforting and quiet as her- more importantly, someone that wasn't Yuffie.

It must have been around nine o'clock or ten when we were finally ready to head out. There were many 'thank-yous' and 'goodnights' said before we left, and when we did, it was really dark and _really_ quiet outside. I wondered if we needed a flashlight or something, but didn't mention it as they seemed to know where they were going. After all, I reminded myself, this was their town. We walked out of the house in pairs, following Leon and Riku until there came a fork in the road. The first two headed down the right of it, as did Yuffie and Kairi, and the rest of us went to the left.

Radiant Garden was such a different place at night. Nobody, except for us, was out and about, walking around. The place was too pretty to be called _creepy, _but it did have an empty feeling to it. A few of the houses we passed had a light on inside, and occasionally we'd see a person or two reading or cleaning, but that was it.

We reached our destination a few minutes later. Aerith walked in first while I stopped to watch Cid and Sora walk on. The latter turned and waved with a smile, which I returned before stepping into the dark house. The proprietor turned the lights on, revealing the inside of the small, but cozy, cottage-type house. The first things I noticed were the delicately handcrafted wooden chairs that lined the sides of a long table. All sorts of pictures, ranging from paintings of flowers to slightly off-centered group shots hung on all four walls of the room, and an archway led into a separate section of the house. I followed Aerith through it, down a hallway, and into a room which, presumably, was where she slept. She told me that my room was at the other end of the hall.

It was mostly empty, save for a small bed covered in layers of quilts, and a dresser with a mirror.

"I hope this will work for you," came Aerith's voice.

I whirled around to find her standing in the door way. "Oh, of course," I said. "Thank you again for letting me stay here."

She smiled at me. "Well you won't be sleeping in the streets if I have anything to say about it."

I chuckled a little. "If you don't mind, I think I'm just going to go to sleep now." She nodded okay and disappeared behind the wall, the sound of her footsteps fading with distance.

I let out a breath and took one last look around before shutting off the lights, climbing under the mound of covers, and falling sleep. We had a big day in store for tomorrow. I was going to need all the energy I could get.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Five complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	26. Chapter Twenty Six

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty-Six

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

We started out early the next morning- earlier than I expected. Aerith poked and prodded and nagged and pulled at me for what seemed like forever until I finally gave in and got up. That was the best night's sleep I'd had all week, and I would forever hold a grudge against her for ruining it.

Or at least until I fully woke up.

The walk all the way back to Merlin's house was utterly torturous. I couldn't take two steps without my eyes falling shut, in which case I would stumble forward, saving myself at the last moment, and snapping back awake for the next couple seconds.

When we arrived and found that the rest of the group was already there, and had been for a while, I was dumbfounded. It should have been a crime to be up that early.

Merlin was sitting at his little table drinking tea, trying to pretend that his house hadn't been invaded by eight other people.

Aerith informed me that she and the others were going to go ahead and start working on the Starlite some more. They had to leave it here overnight so they wouldn't disrupt the process or something like that. Nothing they had done thus far could be saved- I took that to mean that there was something worth saving- so I just went with it.

The next thing I knew, Yuffie was pushing us back out the house, waving goodbye over her shoulder and slamming the front door behind her. "Okay guys, welcome to Radiant Garden! The castle's up that way, so let's get going," she said, pointing up one of the stone roads.

We started forwards in the general direction of the fortress that stood up at least a couple hundred feet above everything else. Yuffie explained again what the objective was. We'd start at the bottom and work our way up to the top, examining every room for anything that might be of worth or importance. Someone would have to keep a list of what we found. And since there was bound to be Heartless, anyone who could fight should help out. It sounded simple enough, but I knew it would probably take half the day to finish. I was hoping that by the time we got back, Cid would be done with the Starlite.

Tomorrow was the last day I'd have to find Ciro. The thought was nauseating, but I couldn't let it get to me. I was stronger than that.

Or at least I hoped I was.

We continued marching through the streets of huge city. Now that I could actually see where I was going, I was able to take in just how badly in shape the town was. Sure, the Restoration Committee was making progress, and everyone was currently living comfortable lives, but compared to how it was before…

_Wait, why am I talking? _I tried blinking away the thoughts, but that apparently wasn't good enough this time. _I don't really have any right to be sad, do I? I don't live here._ No, but I still wanted to help. There wasn't anything wrong with that.

I rolled my eyes at myself. _Why am I over thinking this?_

"Hey, earth to Luna," Sora teased, waving a hand in my distracted face.

"Huh? What?" was my startled answer.

"You were zoning out again. Just thought I'd help out before you walked straight into a wall."

"Oh, my hero," I said sarcastically back at him.

"Come on, I could pass for a knight in shining armor."

Riku scoffed lightheartedly. "Good luck trying to fit a helmet over that head of yours."

"You're one to talk! When's the last time you got a haircut?"

"Hey! No bickering!" Kairi lectured. She sounded as tired as I was, even though she didn't look it. Speaking of tired, I yawned again.

"Why are you so grumpy?" Sora asked with an amused tone.

She looked confused before she answered, "Oh, sorry. I guess I just didn't get much sleep last night. Yuffie sort of kept me up." She smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, don't be like that," Yuffie interjected. "You had fun and you know it."

They went back forth like that for a while. When it ended, I wasn't sure. If we talked about anything else after that, I had no memory of it. I was pretty sure I started sleepwalking a few times, but somehow or other I managed to keep up with the rest of the group. The only thing that kept my consciousness in check was the semi-freezing early morning air. We walked for what seemed like forever (I thought I heard Yuffie say that she was taking the scenic route), which I couldn't say was my favorite activity, but it was better than spending the whole day inside Merlin's house.

Eventually I got tired of trying so hard to stay awake, so we unintentionally split up into two subgroups. Kairi stayed behind with me to make sure I didn't get lost, since she could actually keep her eyes open. Riku and Sora were up ahead with Yuffie, who was talking, as best as I could tell, about how she became a ninja.

"You'd think her mouth would get tired of moving," I commented without really thinking.

Kairi, who had been giggling, suddenly stopped in the middle of the street. I noticed a couple steps later and turned to see that she wasn't even paying attention anymore. Her eyes were wide open and she appeared to be focusing on something. The smile had all but disappeared from her face, so of course I wondered if something was wrong. I attempted to follow her line of sight and ending up looking at a row of old houses with the path in front of them cracked and broken. Other than that, there wasn't anything particularly fascinating or unusual. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I looked back to where she had been standing, but she wasn't there anymore. She had already started walking towards the houses. I wasn't sure what to do. I didn't want to interrupt her investigation, but the distance between us and the others was growing rapidly. I called to Yuffie to wait a second. It didn't take them long to figure out why.

Sora jogged back towards me, asking if I knew what Kairi was doing. I shook my head. She was standing in front of one of the houses, running a hand over the dusty door until she found the knob. She twisted it and stepped inside.

"Should we go after her?" Riku asked, walking up to our little group with Yuffie.

I shook my head. "Not yet," I said. No, I didn't know what she was doing, but I had seen that vague look in her eyes before. I had that look to thank for finding this world. The least I could do was let her go look through some random house for a while.

After a maybe five, ten minutes time in which nobody really said anything, Kairi reemerged from the old, two-story building. She walked slowly with her head hung down, and she was carrying something in her hands. After a few more moments of looking at the object, she pulled her gaze upwards. Nothing had changed in her face exactly, but she looked sort of…_scared_. Sora must have noticed it too, as he said, "Kairi, are you okay?"

She blinked and returned to reality from wherever her mind had been before. "Yeah… I'm fine. I just…" She turned the item in her hands around so that we could see it. It was a wooden-framed picture. I had to squint, but it was a close-up of a woman holding a baby with short, red hair. The woman was leaning back against a tree while the child was sleeping soundly in her arms.

I narrowed my eyes a little more. _Wait a minute, I've seen this before._

"Kairi, isn't that your picture?" I asked. It was that day I met Selphie. We talked about Kairi's hometown and then she pulled out that picture. However, the girl in front of me shook her head, reached into her black bag, and recovered an identical version of what her other hand held. She put them side by side to prove her point.

"You found the same thing in that house?" Yuffie asked.

Kairi nodded once. "There are a lot of pictures," was all she said.

"Do you think it could be a coincidence?" Riku ventured next.

"I don't think so," she answered.

"So…?" Sora started.

She opened her mouth but seemed to be struggling to form the actual words. "I think this was my home," she finally managed to say.

There were plenty of things I could have said in response to the breaking news. I ended up going with, "Really?" but it was so inaudible I had to wonder if I had only thought it.

"Wow, Kairi. Are you sure?" Yuffie asked sympathetically after a moment of complete silence. I couldn't tell if she meant it to be serious or not. And it sort of surprised me that Sora and Riku hadn't said anything about it yet. Maybe they were stuck in the same position I was.

"Actually… Yeah, I am. Something just tells me that I've been here before. A long time ago," Kairi said quietly. "I can't quite place what it is, but…"

"Hey, no need to explain. We're you're friends; we understand," Sora assured, attempting to lighten the situation.

She turned to Sora for a moment, a smile appearing on her face, then looked over her shoulder at the house. "Right. Guys, I'd like to stay here a while, if that's okay."

"Really? But you were so excited about seeing the city," Yuffie said. Kairi turned and met her gaze.

"I still am, but I just really need to sit down right now. But you guys go. Don't let me ruin it. You still have work to do, right? Go, I'll be fine," she ended with a smile.

"You sure?" Riku asked. "We might not be back for a while." She nodded. Something in me didn't want to leave her here by herself. I didn't know if her theory was right- I wasn't even sure Kairi completely believed what she said either. But she really looked like she could use someone to talk to. And hey, that's what friends were for.

"I'm staying with you," I said before walking up to her side.

She looked a little surprised. "No, really, you don't have to-"

"Too bad. I want to." I linked her arm with mine. "Besides, I'd probably just be in the way up at the castle." I waited for someone to object to my statement, but they didn't. "Hey now, I was just kidding," I whined, feigning hurt.

Sora laughed. "So were we. But I think it's a good idea for someone to stay with Kairi. You'd be of more help to her than to us."

My smile was short-lived. "Thanks… I think."

Yuffie, Riku, and Sora left after that. We wished them good luck on their mission, and I trailed after my friend as she once again walked into the house.

* * *

We spent the next hour just sitting on the floor of the empty house. At one point it was probably clean and bright with all the windows open, and filled with a warmth that came from more than just the sun. Now it was just a bunch of dusted over, upturned, broken furniture surrounded by dim, faded walls. Even so, Kairi seemed to feel at home here. She gathered as many pictures as she could find in the two-story building, lay them out on the floor, and tried sorting them by the age of the people in them. A couple we assumed to be her parents were in most of them- I couldn't help but notice that she looked so much like them-, sometimes accompanied by a grandmotherly figure, and while she repeated over and over that they looked _so familiar_, she couldn't recall any solid memory of them. Looking at her trying so desperately hard to remember was saddening, and I found myself reaching out and hugging her from time to time. I never said much; just let her talk herself through everything. It was all I could do.

I never doubted her for a moment after she told us she was born here. I had no reason to. Kairi had felt from the very beginning that there was something special pulling her here. It made sense that she showed up on Destiny Islands soon after the Heartless had emerged all those years ago. And then there was the identical photograph of her and her mother that couldn't be explained any other way than that she had lived at here before.

"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we clean this place up?" I suggested, pushing myself to my feet. "It doesn't look like it's been touched in…a long time."

Kairi looked around at the shadow-filled room a moment before nodding slowly. I smiled and helped her up. Without much more than a broom we found in a closet and a couple towels to work with, it wasn't the easiest job. But the important thing was that it gave Kairi something else to think about for a while. I hadn't ever seen her this sad before. True, I also hadn't known her _that_ long, but I certainly knew her well enough to see that she was in distress. And she had a perfectly good excuse to be, too. Though she never mentioned it aloud, I knew that had to be wondering what she was going to do now that she had found her real home. Maybe her parents were still alive somewhere in the city. Maybe she could ask Leon and the others about it. Maybe-

I was getting a headache. I shook off all the unnecessary thoughts and attempted to concentrate on sweeping the floor. I'd just have to ask Kairi what she thought later.

Another hour later I was ready to drop dead from exhaustion. Housework was not my thing. _Note to self: get Ciro to teach you how to clean without breaking a sweat._ But that would be after I found him, of course.

Luckily, I didn't have to be the one to volunteer break time. "Hey, you look tired. Want to stop?" Kairi asked.

"I'd love to, thanks. But if you're really enjoying yourself, feel free to continue," I replied. She finished straightening up a set of chairs, then dropped her arms to sides in finality.

"Nah. It was nice of you to help, but…" She furrowed her eyebrows as she thought of something. "Hey, how long have the others been gone?"

I shrugged. "A couple hours, I guess. Why?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, really. I just worry whenever they go off to fight. I know they'll be okay, but I'd feel better knowing how things are going."

"Well, we could go find out. The castle shouldn't be that hard to get to."

Her eyes lit up at the offer. "Okay."

* * *

"Ugh, I take back what I said. Do you have any idea where we're going?" I groaned as I finally admitted that we were lost. I took my chances and also decided to say, "You should know your way around here, shouldn't you?" I was afraid that I would hit a sore spot if I said the wrong thing.

We both stopped walking for a moment while Kairi looked up at the looming fortress that appeared to be closer than it actually was. Stupid depth perception.

"No." She sounded apologetic. That only made me feel worse for her. It was time for a new subject…

"So how did you know that was your home?" I asked. Truth was that I was curious.

She was silent so long I didn't think she was ever going to answer. Oh no, I shouldn't have said anything.

"I don't really know. We just walking by it and I suddenly felt like a little kid again." She laughed. "I almost walked into the house without even thinking about it. Kind of crazy, huh?"

The question surprised me. "What? No, it's great that you found it. I'm really happy for you." I bit my lip and realized that this was a good time to ask her my other question. "Have you thought about staying here?" Now she looked surprised. "I mean, I know it's only been a few hours, but I was just wondering," I added in quickly before I started sounding nosey.

"…Yeah, I guess I have thought about it. But…my home is back on the islands with Sora and Riku, and you, too."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that so I just smiled.

The conversation lulled for a while as we wove our way up street after street, inching closer and closer to our destination. All the normal people who didn't wake up so early were starting to fill the space outside. It eventually occurred to us to ask one of them if we were even going in the right direction. We were pointed up a deserted side road that was supposed to lead to the base of the castle, where Yuffie said they'd be heading. The hike up the hill of a road took at least ten minutes, and yes, I was tired by the time we reached the top. We came out on a platform that overlooked the part of town we had just been walking through. It was definitely where we wanted to be. We were standing directly under the castle, which was even bigger than I thought it was. Now we just needed to find a way in.

"Hey, what's over there?" I heard Kairi ask quietly, but I doubted she was talking to me. I answered anyway.

"Um, I don't think we're supposed to go over there," I insisted, referring to the yellow tape falling across the path entrance. She ignored me, as well as the tape, climbing over it and continuing down the increasingly dark course. What choice did I have but to follow her? She disappeared into the shadows before I could catch up, however. I took a couple more steps before calling for her. She didn't answer. Panic threatened to take hold of me. I tried again with her name, but with the same results. How could she have vanished so quickly?

I nearly screamed when I felt something like a grip tighten around my wrist. I whipped around, ready to fight my way out of a battle, when I saw that it was Kairi who had grabbed me.

"Come on, Luna. I found a door," she urged excitedly and began to pull me down the path whether I wanted to go or not. It was only then that I realized that I didn't have my sword, or the Starlite, to fight anyway.

"Geez, Kairi, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" I cried, still feeling a little lightheaded from the surprise. She led me through an opening, down a set of stairs, and into an eerie hallway. We exchanged a look before walking to the end of it and turning the corner to find…more hallways. My mouth fell open. The next thing I knew, the girl had taken off, leaving me behind to do a double-take. It took a conscious thought to force my legs to follow her. "Do you know where we're going?" I shouted after her.

"Nope!" she called back. The word echoed off the walls, and we continued to run down the empty corridors until we came upon a large room where I guessed that all the halls connected to at one point or another. Kairi slowed to a stop to look around, which caused me to almost run her over. I stopped before that could happen, of course. But only just barely. She didn't seem to notice, though. She wandered off to look at something, but I couldn't tell what exactly it was. I sighed and started off in the opposite direction through yet another hall, since I was sure she'd get bored soon and want to start running again. What I saw at the end of it, however, caught me off guard.

"Hey, come over here," I told Kairi. She turned and jogged over to where I was. "I found a door, too," I said proudly, pointing at the important-looking postern. She laughed and we started towards it. Why I was expecting someone to be inside, I had no clue. But no, the room was empty. Messy, but empty. Seriously, it looked like a tornado intent on knocking as much stuff on the floor as possible had swept through there. That or somebody needed to work on their organizational skills.

"Whoa, this place is _trashed_," Kairi emphasized.

"No kidding." I found myself walking up to one of the many chalkboards hanging on the walls. This one was covered in notes and drawings. I couldn't understand any of it. _What is this? Some kind of lab?_ I bent down to grab a book off the floor while I made a mental note to ask Yuffie what she knew about this place. I flipped idly through the pages of the old thing, not really paying attention to anything I was reading. When I got to the end I closed it back up and set it on top of the bookshelf in front of me.

"Hey, Luna, I think you'd better come see this," Kairi requested. Curious, I made my way over to the other side of the room where she was standing, holding another book. It was as ordinary looking as anything else in the room, but the moment I saw it, I knew what she was talking about. On the front of the leather-bound journal were inscribed the words _Project: Starlite_. She handed it over to me. "I found it on the shelf. Do you think it means your necklace?" Without answering her question, I turned it open to the first page.

_Day 1_

_Today officially begins our research with Project: Starlite. A month ago to the day, the most peculiar piece of mineral was brought in with the story that it fell from space. After multiple tests and evaluations, we have formed the hypothesis that this falling star, which has been named Novarine for the time being, has the unusual ability to react to human thoughts and emotions. When we spoke with anger or joy in its presence, it began to glow radiantly. What this means we are not sure yet. The goal of Project: Starlite is to decipher this power, and extend the potential of it._

"I think it's something else," I said nonchalantly. However, I turned a few more pages and read the next entry. Kairi leaned over this time to see.

_Day 15_

_For the last two weeks we have been charting the sort of reactions the Novarine has towards certain situations. When the environment is under normal conditions, it remains stationary. When there is tension, it glows, brighter with deeper concentration. But the most fascinating reaction comes when there is fear; the piece of rock suspends itself in midair and floats. While this is all intriguing, the question still remains as to where it came from. Nothing is certain except that there is more work to be done. The next step seeing just how far we can push the Novarine's limits._

"What's a Novarine?" Kairi asked.

"Some rock they found." I had to admit that this was kind of interesting. I wanted to see what else they learned about this thing, so I continued to flip the pages of the journal.

_Day 41_

_Now that we have the structure for the Starlite designed, we will need to gather the materials for which to build it. Something sturdy that won't break open easily, yet compact to hold the piece of Novarine in place. It also needs to be able to stay attached to the person who uses it. It has been decided that the simplest object would be a necklace. We will ask Ansem as soon as possible for the permission and materials. The sooner we finish constructing it, the sooner we can start on determining what qualities will be required of a test subject._

I saw Kairi look up at me out of the corner of my eye, but I was concentrating on the word 'necklace' too hard to care. This… This couldn't possibly be the same thing, could it? If all this happened here in Radiant Garden, how would Ciro have gotten the Starlite in the first place? Maybe there would be a logical answer on another page.

_Day 60_

… _Due to circumstances beyond our control, fate has chosen our test subject for us. This was not foreseen as a possibility, and even now, we hesitate to proceed with the project. But to stop now when we have come so far is out of the question as well. Too much time and effort has gone into this endeavor, and now we are on the brink of developing a new way of life. No, we will continue the tests with caution and hope that all goes as planned._

There was a footnote at the bottom of the page that told who the 'test subject' was, which the actual entry had been annoyingly vague about. I went to read it, and my fingers went numb, causing the book to fall to the floor. My head started spinning with too many questions to count. This time my legs moved on their own. I pulled open the door and ran blindly back through the hallways. I had no idea where I was going, or when I'd stop running. All I knew was that I had to get away from that room- away from that book. All of a sudden, nothing made sense. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I tried to blink the image of those last words I read away, all the while knowing even now that they would be forever ingrained in my mind.

_Our daughter, Luna, is to be the first test subject for Project: Starlite._

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Six complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	27. Chapter Twenty Seven

Cosmic Hearts

Chapter Twenty-Seven

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

I wanted to scream loud enough to drown out the rest of the world. I wanted to cry so I wouldn't have to deal with the inescapable questions. And more than any of that, I wanted to run far away from the confusing situation. I wanted to run forever and ever and ever and never look back.

But my body couldn't handle all the stress and still continue to push forward, so eventually I was forced to stop. I rested my hands on the wall in front of me, panting hard and gasping for breath. I turned and sank to the ground, giving myself a moment before looking around. I hadn't the slightest clue where I was- some alley? But on the bright side, that also meant that nobody would be able to find me for a while, if I was lucky. I needed the peace and quiet and solitude to think things through rationally, even if I didn't want to. Swallowing another sob, I allowed the image of that journal, and all that came with it, to fill my mind once again.

_This doesn't make sense. It… How could… There's no way… _

Just a bunch of half-formed thoughts that I didn't know how to finish. There was so much that those journal entries implied, and it couldn't _all_ be coincidence, could it? But if I chose to accept just one of those implications, then I'd have to believe it all. First, there was the mention of the Starlite, a necklace created to hold some sort of meteorite. If it really was the same necklace Ciro had given me, how did he get it? He couldn't have left Galaxy, come here, and stolen it. And even if he could have done it, he wouldn't. That just wasn't possible, no matter how you looked at it.

_But what if he had left from here with it to begin with?_

The force of the question hit me hard, making it difficult to breathe. What if he had left from here? What _if _he had left from here?

I squeezed my eyes shut. _No_. We- the both of us; Ciro _and_ I- lived on _Galaxy_. Not here, not ever. It just couldn't…

_And then there was the… _My name. It had _my name_ in that journal. It blatantly said that the people who had written it had a daughter named Luna. What else could that mean?

But my parents were dead. They had been for as long as I could remember. There wasn't any way around that fact either. I didn't even have a single memory of what they looked like. It was me and Ciro, and that was it. Maybe there was a lot about myself I didn't understand, but I knew this much to be true. I was sure of it.

But was I? I was painfully aware that this wasn't the time to be stubborn about coming to a decision about this. So, for a moment I allowed myself to try and believe in that journal. I cleared my head and relaxed all the muscles in my body that still hurt from running.

_If I really am the same Luna it was talking about, then I would have had to live here at some point in my life, and…those people would have had to have been my…parents. And if that _is_ true, then could they still be alive?_

I shook my head. Not even that theory made sense. How did we get to Galaxy? No, _when_?

"This is so messed up," I murmured to myself. I brought a hand to my head in a useless attempt to stop the headache I could feel coming on. My entire life was now under question, and I simply had no answers.

But maybe Ciro would. He seemed to understand what was going on a lot better than I did. But of course I'd have to _find_ him before I could ask him anything. And before that, I needed to unlock the Starlite's power and give that guy what he wanted. So, that meant that the next step was reading the rest of the journal. There was bound to be something in there that was helpful.

But wait; I left it back in that office, along with Kairi. I didn't know how to get back there either, and the last thing I wanted to do was wander around aimlessly in this huge city. But it didn't look like I had any other choice.

I took a deep breath and held it for just a second too long. When I was done choking, I dried my reddened eyes and pulled myself up via a crack in the wall behind me.

Er, correction; the next step was figuring out where I was. My immediate thought was to fly up and get a better look at my surroundings, but without the Starlite, that wasn't going to happen. Sighing, I trudged forward, mentally keeping a track of which way I was going as best I could. Whatever energy I had been using to run with earlier was completely gone now, leaving me to walk somewhat sluggishly. Finally I found a street I recognized; the one Aerith lived on. Now all I had to do was remember the route we took to get to Merlin's house.

More walking and a few turns later, the house came into view. I had already started towards it when I heard my name.

"Luna, there you are," a familiar voice called out.

I turned to find Leon walking up to me from the opposite direction. He looked like he was in a hurry. "Oh, hi," I mumbled back when he was close enough to actually hear me. I just wasn't in the mood to be so cheery.

It suddenly hit me that at some point I'd have to explain myself to everyone, which was also something I was most definitely not in the mood for.

"Hey, come with me. Cid found something you might want to see," he ordered without even pausing. Either he didn't notice my tear-stained face, or he didn't care. Whichever way, I was grateful.

Then his words sank in, and my heart skipped a beat. "W-what?"

Without answering, he continued up to the front door of the house, gesturing for me to follow as he did so. My thoughts instantly went whirling again. _Cid found something…about the Starlite?_ And all of a sudden I was back in that alley, crying out all my confusion. Like a gunshot the headache was back, as painful as ever. More than that I was dizzy, and I nearly lost my balance as the ground swayed back and forth. What was with this? Couldn't I go a single day without this happening? Yeah, I'd been prone to this type of thing my entire life, but this week in particular had been extra horrible for both obvious and unclear reasons.

The world in front of me nauseatingly shifted again, and this time I found myself in a brightly lit room. So bright, it almost burned. Actually, it did burn. My skin felt like it was on fire, and I realized then that so was the room. I gasped and began screaming for help like any kid in my situation would do. I called for my mom, my dad, my brother, _anybody_. I couldn't hear anything over the roar and cackle of the quickly-spreading flames. Where were they? Didn't they know I needed help? I buried my face into the wall behind me, crying and shouting and begging for someone to make it stop. The next thing I knew, a hand wrapped around my arm, jerking me up. I didn't have but a split second to realize who it was before I was dragged around the house, zigzagging every which way to dodge the walls of fire. He opened a door and I was greeted by cool night air. I pulled my wrist out of his grip and-

"Hey, you all right?" Leon asked, waving a hand in front of my face. I stumbled backwards at the sudden crash back into reality, but he caught my arm to keep me from falling. The same arm I had just been pulled by in the illusion.

"I'm not sure," I answered after a moment. I realized instantly that this was the third time I had been haunted by that same nightmare- being inside a burning house, alone and afraid- but this time was different. Before, it had been cut off at the same place, where I was screaming. This time someone had actually saved me. No, not someone; _Ciro_.

But why was happening in the first place? What was the point of experiencing that over and over again? Was it trying to tell me something? What was _it_?

"Well, come on. This is important." Leon gestured for me to follow him inside. "Cid, she's here," he announced when we walked in. The blonde man was sitting at the computer where I'd last seen him that morning. He twisted around in his chair to face us. I spotted Aerith over in the corner talking to Merlin as we walked up to him. She paused to say hello, then went back to her conversation. The screen behind Cid that was usually moving rapidly from list to list and picture to picture was stopped on a specific image for a change. Cid nodded and turned back to start his explanation.

"Well, while we were scanning all the data inside the Starlite, something out of the ordinary came up. All this right here," he said, pointing to the gray portion of the screen, "represents the matter that makes up the actual necklace. But over here," he moved his finger to the less discolored area up in the corner, "we don't know what this is. It's obviously not part of the necklace, but we can't find a match to any substance we've tried so far. I even tried using a Gummi block- those things can come in all sorts of varieties, and I thought it might explain why this can make you fly- but no luck. Leon thought it'd be best to just ask you."

"So, do you have any idea what it is?" Leon inquired when he was done.

I absently shook my head. "No," I whispered. And it was true; I _didn't_ know what they were talking about. Even if I wanted to rack my brain for an answer, I couldn't; I was physically, and mentally, worn out. And I was surprised to find that I was angry. Way down deep inside me I felt a little bubble of rage getting ready to burst. Too much more of this and I thought I might explode with it. I almost didn't catch what Leon said next.

"You're sure?"

"… Yes."

"Then what do you propose we do?"

"I wish I knew."

"Is something wrong?"

I looked up suddenly to meet Leon's gaze.

"First that episode outside and now you're acting sad that we've found something that might help you. I would've thought you'd be more excited."

I bit my tongue to keep from snapping back. He didn't deserve it. But I was just so _mad_.

The front door was pushed open again. "Leon! Have you seen- Luna!" Yuffie exclaimed, cutting her own question off midsentence when she walked in. She ran up to me and shook me by the shoulders. "There you are! We've been looking all over the place for you! Don't you know not to run off by yourself?"

I was a little too shocked to reply.

"I think she means that we're glad you're okay," Riku said, trailing in behind her. Sora and Kairi came in last.

"That too," Yuffie added. She let go of me and backed up some to make room for the others to form a circle. All was quiet for the next couple minutes after that. I had no intention of disrupting it.

"Kairi told us what happened," Sora finally said.

"I ran into them after I went looking for you," Kairi explained. She looked down at an object in her hands before holding them out in front of her, presumably for me to see. "I also brought this. You dropped it when you ran out." It was the journal.

I went to take it from her. In my hands the light leather-bound book felt heavy as lead. "Y- you told them?" It was almost relieving. At least now I wouldn't have to do it myself.

"Well, she told us that she found a book about the Starlite. But that doesn't explain why you ran off," Riku said.

"Not to interrupt, but I think now would be a good time to tell them what we found," Leon interjected at the next moment of silence.

"You found something too?" Sora asked, swerving around everyone to get to the computer. Cid began explaining to him what he'd told me just a few minutes earlier.

"Luna?" Kairi said. I turned back to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

_No. I don't. I _want _this to be over. I _want_ Ciro back. I _want _to go _home_._

But I wasn't even sure where my home was anymore.

I whispered, "Okay."

Riku was the first to ask, "What was it that made you run?"

My grip on the journal tightened, as did my chest, but I forced my hand to flip it open to the first page, and I kept flipping until I found what I was looking for. I kept my head down while I turned the book around for him to read. Out of the tops of my eyes I could see Kairi and Yuffie move closer to read it too. Neither said anything for the longest time, but that was probably all in my head.

"You said you found this in the basement?" Riku asked Kairi.

She nodded slowly. "It was in some kind of office hidden way back in the castle."

"That must have been Ansem's study," Yuffie replied. "There's a whole bunch of weird stuff in there."

"What's going on?" Sora asked.

"I'm in this journal," I answered bitterly, without turning to face him.

"What?" He sounded surprised. "Are you sure?"

_Not unless you know another Luna with a Starlite._ Another snappy remark that I had to hold back. I didn't understand why I was so angry, and I couldn't seem to make it stop. In the background I heard everyone begin talking about the situation; the journal; _me._ I hated it. Why couldn't some other poor soul be stuck in this mess? Why did it have to be me?

I inwardly scoffed at myself. _Why do I sound so selfish? Ciro's the one that's actually in danger and I'm sitting here drowning in self-pity? Didn't I make the decision already to _stop_ that?_

A flicker of darkness crossed my vision, followed by the smell of smoke. The strangest feeling arose in me; one I didn't have time to place before I was suddenly thrown into a different scene. The whole world went black until my eyes adjusted to the dark night. My lungs hurt from screaming so much, and I was still crying when Ciro let go of my arm. I continued to run away from the burning building even though I was safe now. I tripped over my own feet and hit the ground hard, pain shooting up through my hands and legs. I cried out but ignored the stinging as I turned over to face my brother. Only he wasn't even looking at me; he was statue-still as he watched the nightmare play out in front of him.

"Ciro," I called weakly. He flinched and spun around quickly, the look on his face indicating that he had forgotten I was even there. That was also when I noticed he was holding a sword just as big as him in his hand. "Ciro, w-where're mom and dad?" He didn't answer my question but took a couple steps towards me, kneeling down to meet my worried, terrified gaze directly. His emotionless face and empty eyes only added to the fear quickly building inside me. Why wouldn't he answer me? "Ciro?" I tried again.

He laid the sword down on the ground next to him. "Here," he finally said. "We need to leave." He stuck out his hand and opened it up to reveal a necklace. After a moment I recognized it as the thing mom and dad had been working on for the last few months.

"W-why do we need it? _Where_ are they? Are they still inside? We can't le-"

"We can't do anything now but go!" he barked at me impatiently. The way his voice cracked at the end was enough- that was when I _knew_. A new batch of tears welled up and flooded from my eyes. "Come on, we have to hurry." He pulled the necklace over my head. "Do you remember what to do?"

I nodded. "Yeah." Recently, they had been teaching me how to do a lot of cool tricks with that necklace. It was really a lot of fun, but it could get tiresome after a while. I asked them if Ciro could try it, but all they said was no.

"Good. Now you're going to have to focus extra hard this time."

"But what's going on?" I pleaded with him.

"… I'll tell you later. Now focus."

I hesitantly did as I was told, wrapping my small hand around the black, star-shaped charm and closing my eyes, but it was so hard to think knowing that the fire was still raging before us. I had memorized how to use that special part of my brain to make myself fly, but I just couldn't _think_. When I was about to give up, I felt Ciro take both my hands and squeeze them a little, as if to say _you can do it_. That gave me the encouragement I needed to keep trying. My body grew warm before long, but it wasn't because of the fire. I always got this way when I was wearing that necklace. When I opened my eyes again, my skin was glowing a pretty white color, and so was Ciro's. I was momentarily mesmerized by it like a cat with a ball of yarn. The white continued to spread until it engulfed my entire vision.

And that was when it ended. I reawakened to find myself on my knees, my hands clenched so tightly together my fingernails were digging into my palms. Someone was lightly shaking my shoulder, but I didn't bother looking to see who it was. It didn't matter, and I didn't care.

"It… It was a memory." I understood now. All those times, I hadn't been hallucinating; I had been _remembering_. Remembering the night…my parents died.

Saying it to myself was what did it. Too much had happened today for me to handle, and I had finally reached my breaking point.

In short, the bubble popped.

* * *

My head shot up at the sound of a scream. I looked around to try and follow it back to its owner, but I couldn't tell from which direction it came. It was almost as if it had only been in my head. But something so completely heart wrenching couldn't have been mere imagination. It just didn't seem possible.

I sighed in aggravation. "I'm losing it." And in truth, I probably was. I couldn't take being locked up much longer, sitting here so completely useless.

But to complain now would be selfish. Luna had a right to the truth and I should've told her everything from the beginning, about the Starlite, about our parents. We might have been better prepared for this situation. It might have even prevented this altogether.

But she also had a right to a normal life; not this twisted mess of a problem that all started because _I was careless_.

And that was the truth. The simple, cold, hard truth. I got her into this because of my own stupid mistakes, and now I couldn't even help her out of it.

Both my fists tightened. Of course, it wasn't all my fault. Nero and whoever he was working with had a bloody hand in this. Why were they so intent on destroying our family? What good would having the Starlite be without also having the one person who could successfully use it?

_"Luna isn't going to help me by her own will, that's true. But we've been very busy these last few years, working on something that should fix that problem, and the Doc's finally got it perfect. And guess who gets to be our little guinea pig."_

Those words had been haunting me since the day I asked. It scared me to think that there might be something they could do to change Luna's mind. Right now they were using me as bait to lure her into their trap, but what then? I was sure I didn't want to know the answer.

The basement door was pushed open harshly, slamming against the walls of the corridor as the black-clad man rushed down and appeared at the bottom. To my surprise, he actually seemed alarmed. His already dark eyes were shadowed over with concern. What was he so upset about?

"You're…all right?" He glanced around the room suspiciously.

I took full advantage of the apprehension in his voice that I hadn't known him to feel before. "What do you care?" I hissed.

His dangerous gaze shot towards me. "I don't. But it's my job to make sure you're not too much of a nuisance."

I scoffed. "Your job? And here I thought you were the one calling all the shots around here."

His eyes narrowed at me. "That is where you would be wrong. This was his idea from the very beginning. I'm here to play my part and get my share of the power. I'm not fool enough to believe, or let you believe, that I'm any more important than a pawn. In fact, you could say that I'm even less important than you at this point."

"Because I'm the reason Luna's trying to figure out the Starlite?"

"No. Because you're the reason Luna _will_ discover the long-sleeping power that lies within it." He sounded so irritatingly confident.

My nerves were close to breaking. "But she doesn't even understand her past! Don't you see that yet?" I half-screamed, half-begged. Though he gave no response, I could tell that he _hadn't_ known. "She doesn't remember anything. That world you found us on; she thinks we've lived there our entire lives. She had no idea the Starlite even existed until you barged in and tried to take her."

A long moment passed before he said anything, and when he did, his voice was barely above a whisper. "So this is why you've been so sure she would fail."

I kept my focus on him until I heard the door open again.

"Nero, what is going on down here? I thought you said you were taking care of it," a middle-aged, deep voice said.

Nero's eyes went wide, and he quickly spun around to block the entrance of the man trying to come down. "I am. What do you need?"

That was when I realized that this was the "doctor" he had been talking about; the one who was really in charge. I moved closer to the bars of my prison to see his face. When I did, something registered as familiar in the back of my head. If I had had a couple more moments to look at him, I was sure I could've figured it out, but he was rushed back up before I could even stop him.

Nero sent one last look over his shoulder to put me back in my place before he went to follow the other man.

Without thinking, I heard myself asking, "You heard the scream too, didn't you?"

He froze where he was, which gave me all the confirmation I needed. It almost seemed like he would turn back around again, but he hurried out of the room, leaving me once again in the seclusion I was accustomed to.

I forced my muscles to relax. _Maybe I'm not as crazy as I thought after all. _

An argument soon erupted on the floor above me. I glanced up at the stone ceiling, wondering if I had made the right decision in blurting out the secret I'd kept all this time.

_Or maybe we all are._

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Seven complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

._. I don't even want to begin explaining why this took such a ridiculous amount of time to write... I mean, I could, but none of us want to hear me do that, so... Forgive me?


	28. Chapter Twenty Eight

Cosmic Hearts

Chapter Twenty-Eight

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

Numb. So very, very numb. It would have scared me, I knew, how quickly I had given into it, had I still been capable of thought. But no. At first I was uncontrollably emotional to the point it actually _hurt_. It had taken both Leon _and _Yuffie to hold me down so I couldn't break anything or hurt myself. Cid had to block the door so I had no way of escaping, and there was nothing Aerith could do but watch. When the last bit of energy had finally been screamed and kicked and punched and shoved out of my system, the next thing that went was my sense of feeling. The more time that passed the less alive I felt, and then finally I was too tired to put up a fight, and the numbness took over. Little by little my ability to think faded along with it, and I didn't even feel a thing. Now I sat like a master-less puppet on display in the middle of the floor for everyone to see. Normally my behavior would have embarrassed me to no end, but…

Just because _I_ had given up didn't mean everyone else had. My friends had tried valiantly to calm me down during my animalistic fit, and then attempted to coax me into telling them what was wrong when I had. But not even their efforts could get through to me. I didn't expect them to understand- how could they?- and I certainly wasn't ignoring them on purpose; I was just exhausted.

While I wasn't particularly paying attention to my surroundings, I could tell that everything was quiet for once. And then, someone was sitting close to me, staring at me, waiting for some sort of response. I didn't give them one. "Luna, can you hear me?" Sora asked. His voice bounced off the walls of my skull, echoing until it faded away, but it never really reached my ears.

"Luna, snap out of it," Riku said, bending down next to him.

Kairi followed suit and added, "We're trying to help you."

I knew that. Somewhere amidst all the chaos my mind had been reduced to firmly stood that belief. It had been there all along, weathering every storm and pushing me along. I _wasn't_ alone.

As if someone else was controlling me, I extended my hand and laid it on top of Sora's. I registered a pair of blue eyes as my head leveled with his. "I'm sorry," Someone Else said.

"Don't apologize; just tell us how we can help," he said.

I ignored his request and repeated the same line again. "I'm so sorry." Then more words started tumbling out of my mouth at their own will. "I never should have dragged you guys into this. You had lives before I met you, and you had already been through so much. None of you deserve to put up with this." That was when they tried to stop me; tell me that it wasn't true, that they wanted to help- all those things I'd heard before. And all of which I didn't want to hear again. "I was so very wrong about everything, which makes this all my fault. You are all great friends, but-"

I was suddenly met with a sharp blow to the side of my face that almost knocked me over. The shock had me paralyzed for a few moments until I heard my attacker speak. "Sorry, but I didn't think you were going to stop any time soon," Yuffie said with the slightest hint of guilt in her voice.

"Hey, that wasn't necessary," Riku told her.

"I think it was," she shot back. Then to me she said, "Look, since we got back you've been acting like a crazy person; hours and hours of this ridiculous silent treatment. Mind telling me what happened now?" she demanded.

The numbness had fled in hiding by now, leaving a stinging sensation in my cheek. My idle thoughts were now spinning out of control, crashing into each other loudly and painfully. I could barely hear her over it, let alone comprehend what she was saying. When she realized I wasn't going to answer, she got down and faced me directly.

"You want to find your brother, right? Well you're not going to if you don't get yourself together."

I blinked a couple times to bring the world into focus. I looked around the room at everyone until my gaze settled on Yuffie. "I'm s-"

"And if I hear you apologize, I'll slap you again." Her lips curved into a playful smirk and she stood back up. While her intentions were good, I still didn't feel any better. But she had a point; it was time I told them everything.

"I remembered something," I said to no one in particular. I knew they were all listening. "It had been coming back to me a little at a time, but I never realized…" I had to swallow back a sob before continuing. "It's my parents. They died when I was a kid."

"Did you not know that?" Kairi asked cautiously.

"No, I did, but I never knew how. Ciro didn't tell me what happened, and I had forgotten…until now." I looked up at Kairi. "It was a fire."

Shock passed over her face. "What?"

"And then Ciro gave me the Starlite. He told me we had to leave."

Sora spoke this time. "Leave where?"

I pulled my legs back up to me and squeezed them tight. "Here." The pinprick feeling of tear breaking loose hit me. I did nothing to stop it. "I never, ever thought of myself as the type of person that tragedies happen to. This should be the brave hero's story; not mine. I was supposed to grow up and live out my life like every other villager on Galaxy, with Ciro there to protect me. He always did. But that's not possible now, is it?"

"Well, maybe, but you'll have to see this through to the end if you want to know," Riku said.

"Come on, we've come this far- _you've _come this far," Kairi urged.

Sora took on a determined look. "I vote that we just don't give her a choice. Anybody else agree?"

Seven hands instantly shot up into the air, from everyone save Merlin and I, but I wasn't sure he knew what was going on.

"Right then," Sora concluded. "Where's that journal?" Kairi handed in over to him, who then offered it to me. I sat there staring at it for a few long moments before I took it. Honestly, I was scared out of my mind of what else might be inside. Would I lose it again if I found something even worse? Could there _be_ anything worse?

There was suddenly a page of words in front of me, even though I didn't remember opening it up. I gulped down my fear and read the first thing I saw out loud.

_Day 119_

_We were forced to compromise the truth. Master Ansem came to us today and asked us about our project. In this castle, reputation is everything. Had he found out that we were in fact not responsible for finding the Novarine, or even thought it was worth investigating in the first place, we would have lost credibility in our work. I suppose I am admitting all this here as way of clearing my conscience. But it will not fully go away until we tell Cosmus. Surely he will understand our decision._

I thought I was going to be sick.

"Who's Cosmus?" Riku asked me, though he must've known what I'd say.

I shook my head as way of answering before saying, "I can't do this." I threw the book down and hid my face in my knees, but hiding from the truth would do no good.

Kairi picked it a second later, going through it herself. She gasped at something she read a little while later. "Guys, listen to this. It's the last entry."

_Day 121_

_This has changed everything. We realize now that we have made so many wrong decisions, and we might not be able to fix our mistakes before it is too late. I have been aware for some time that this could happen, so perhaps the blame falls entirely on me. Regardless, all that matters now is that we protect our children at all costs, especially Luna. Should he make good on his threat, they could at least continue the research in our place. Otherwise, it would mean the end of Project: Starlite._

I had been listening though I didn't show it. My arms were shaking with more fear and anger than I knew I had left in me. I blocked out any other questions or comments that may have been directed at me.

A few minutes later, I heard someone who had been quiet for a while. "Hey, guys?" Leon spoke up. "It's getting late. We need to start heading home soon." I hadn't even thought about it, but he was right. It had gotten dark an hour or so ago.

"Is there nothing else you can do with the Starlite?" Sora asked for me.

"'Fraid not," Cid answered. "There's only so much computers can do for us. The rest is up to you now."

Because that's exactly what I wanted to hear.

I uncurled from my stubborn position so I could catch the necklace when Cid tossed it to me. I slipped it over my head and instantly felt the familiar warmth pulse through me.

"Maybe some sleep would help anyway," Aerith suggested, walking over towards me. Always polite. Always trying to find the positive. I wished I had that spirit my friends had been trying to instill in me, what with the constant example they set and all the encouragement they've given me.

She pulled me up, and for the first time in a while I began to float.

"Yeah, maybe it would," I said dully.

It was ironic that I was having so much trouble sleeping when I was this tired. It was even more ironic that I couldn't stop thinking about the journal when it was the last thing I wanted on my mind. I had already trying clearing my head and counting sheep- which I noted does _not_ work after all- but I eventually realized that I wasn't going to be able to ignore it. I got up from under the covers of the bed in Aerith's guestroom, floating silently over to the dresser on the adjacent wall, where the troublesome book had been placed. I turned open to the last page I had read, skimming over the words once more.

I still didn't know who this Cosmus person was, or what he had to do with anything. I began flipping backwards through the pages to try and find any other mention of him. None. Most of the journal was just statistics and lists I couldn't make any sense of.

One page in particular caught my eye.

_Day 89_

_There is something we are not seeing. Luna has made remarkable progress- more than we originally even thought feasible. The possibilities of what we can do with the Novarine are virtually infinite. The ways this could improve the standards of living are more than worth the labor and time we have put into this project. Yes, we have discovered much, but there is still something else; something more powerful and dangerous than any of the abilities we have recorded in this journal. If we could just find a way to bring it to the surface and see what it can do…_

"The Starlite's power," I murmured to myself. That _had_ to be it! I went to the next entry.

_Day 104_

_Our main focus for the last few weeks has been the mysterious power sleeping within the Novarine. It remains mysterious as we have not yet been able to get Luna to hold it long enough to obtain any real information on it. Nonetheless, it is there and with time we should be able to learn more. But fascinating as it is, I cannot ignore the possibility that nature does not intend us to know what this power is like. For all we know, this could be more than mere human can handle. We as a race are frighteningly vulnerable to greed and the longing to hold control._

I frantically searched for something useful. Surely there was something in here that explained it.

It was the second to last entry- the one right before what Kairi read.

_Day 116_

_Of course! We should have realized sooner what triggers these strange episodes! The other powers the Novarine grants come from channeling strong emotions into energy. And emotions themselves are reactions directly of the heart. But something must be fueling the force behind these reactions. We have just now solved this puzzle: it is memories; the only things capable to turning thoughts into feelings and feelings into power. And the most intense memories must be what elicit this ultimate power of destruction. We have only seen a glimpse, and what it did to Luna was phenomenal. This begs the obvious question of what memory of hers was chosen to be the catalyst._

I turned to the final entry, knowing that it would not explain any more. I nearly broke down again in frustration, but held myself together long enough to try and put these unconnected bits of information in a logical order.

After that they began the experiments that allowed them to learn how the Novarine works. The flying, the protection, the morphing-into-random-weapons; it had all been recorded at one point or another. But there was something I noticed it didn't mention: anything about being able to pass through solid objects. It would have been easy to write it off as something they simply hadn't figured out yet, but that didn't seem right.

I remembered the entry about me somehow becoming the test subject by accident. That was when this became about me. Before that it was just a couple of scientists doing their job. But what happened to make it this way? They didn't seem to think it was important enough to write down. Details directly unrelated to this project were left unsaid. And yet, Cosmus made it in? What role did he play that made a difference?

_Should he make good on his threat, they could at least continue the research in our place. Otherwise, it would mean the end of Project: Starlite._

That was written only two days after they planned to tell him what happened. He could have been the one to make the threat.

The scenes of that long-forgotten fire flashed through my mind, sparking yet another theory I didn't want to believe possible.

_Is he the one that killed them?_

I suddenly realized I had my hand around the Starlite, and then more surprisingly I found myself speaking to it.

_You were there when it all happened; you know _everything_. Can't you tell me what I need to know?_

A brief stab of pain hit the back of my head, quickly followed by another stab in my chest. In mere seconds the pain had intensified so much that I had to release both the Starlite and the journal, and I doubled over. A high-pitched ringing sound that I didn't realize at first was my own screaming filled my ears. Inside my heart was a new light that I could sense rather than see. I tried reaching past the sharp blows that surrounded it like wall of thorns to grasp whatever _it_ was. It was…important. I fought until I was close enough to feel the blinding brightness pull me in even more.

And then a simple touch on my shoulder ended it all. The pain vanished as quickly as it had come, taking the light with it. I was on my hands and knees, panting hard and shaking horribly.

"Luna?" Aerith asked worriedly. I looked up at her through tear-blurred eyes, mouth opening to speak, but I found I wasn't able to. She must have come in because of the screaming. She was in a nightgown; probably sleeping before this. We stayed like that, me unable, her unwilling to move in case it started up again. But I knew it wouldn't.

This would have been about the time where I'd be running through an endless list of questions, unable to give any of them answers. This time was different. This time I knew _exactly_ what had just happened.

I had just experienced the true power of the Starlite.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Eight complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

So I thought it would be cool to update exactly a year after I started this story! :D It's a miracle I was actually able to finish it in time T.T


	29. Chapter Twenty Nine

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Twenty-Nine

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

As I was sitting on the floor with Aerith staring at me with that motherly concern in her eyes, I realized how I must have looked to her. A frightened little girl with shaking arms and hair matted to her face with cold sweat, eyes frozen open as if the empty room we were in held the most terrifying thing in the world.

I must have looked positively _insane_.

But perhaps it was a fitting look, for how I felt inside was just as bad. Thunderclouds stormed inside my head, pouring out thoughts in the form of tears. My heart was beating wildly, working doubletime trying to try and keep my body from shutting down completely. Of course I was ecstatic with what I had just done- I finally knew how to use the power I needed to rescue Ciro!- but it was buried beneath other emotions like anxiety and hatred. Hatred because I had never been so fed up with anything in my life. I could finally put an end to this stupid game that the man in black has been forcing me to play, and I was just now becoming aware of how much I truly detested it, and him.

Two thoughts in particular simultaneously crossed my mind just then: _He will pay for what he has put my family through_ and _I need to tell the others_.

The latter sent a burst of energy through me that suddenly had me on my feet, surprising Aerith.

In a strangely monotone, yet desperate, voice, I asked, "Where do they live?"

Maybe it was that she didn't understand the question, but she was silent for a moment too long, which aggravated me. "Oh, never mind," I spat out. "I'll just find them myself." As I turned to leave, a hand reached up and pulled me back.

"Luna, wait!"

I didn't need to look at her to know what she was going to ask. I had yet to explain to her what the phenomenon she had witnessed was all about. And I didn't need to look to answer either. My arm went slack as I sighed as closed my eyes. "It was the Starlite's power, all right?"

She released my wrist and just sat there for a minute before saying, "You're sure?"

Would I have said it if I wasn't sure? She got the message. "Okay. What are you going to do now?"

"I have to tell them. They need to hear this, and we need to leave as soon as possible."

"Luna," she began patiently. "It's nearly two in the morning; they're all sleeping right now. I understand that this is urgent, but you need your rest too. You've had a long day."

"But I…" I could do it now! I didn't need to wait or cry or _rest_ anymore! And the deal that kept my brother alive was supposed to end tomorrow. Or today, actually, if it was as late as she said it was. My chest tightened. "I can't stay here any longer. Not when I can finally save Ciro," I whispered. I heard Aerith shift to stand up and then wrap her arms around me, pulling me around into a hug.

"You still have time. Don't worry, everything will be okay."

One last tear rolled down my cheek before I made the decision that there wasn't any point in arguing with her. She was right, after all. Even if we left now, I certainly didn't have the strength to fight anyone, which I had to face was probably going to be the case. At the same time I knew that sitting around here, unable to fall asleep, would do me no good either. But the least I could do was try, for Aerith's sake.

If I had fallen asleep at all during the hours I sat there in bed, staring out

* * *

the window at the sky, I had no memory of it. Yet, I somehow found I felt a little better when the sun peeked up over the horizon. I smiled in relief and jumped up, bolting straight for the door. When I opened it up, I wasn't surprised to find Aerith there waiting, hand raised to knock. She, however, probably wasn't expecting me to be awake so early.

"Come on," I said grimly. She didn't seem to have any more objections and just nodded at me. I continued forward until we were outside, where I had to stop for a second. The cold morning air startled my overly warm body just a tad. But I pushed myself to ignore it and kept going. The entire way there I could feel Aerith's eyes darting towards me every few minutes, as if something would happen if _she_ didn't keep a close watch. I didn't bother saying anything to her about it, though; if she wanted to needlessly fret, she could.

When we turned the final corner that brought us face to face with our destination, I picked up a faster pace. It occurred to me that it might be too early and everyone else might not even be there, which made me inwardly groan. The anticipation would kill me before anything else could at this rate. Then when I opened the door, I was so happy to find them all standing around the house I almost cried out.

…Almost. This wasn't the time to be emotional.

"Morning," Sora started carefully. Probably worried I'd melt down again, not that I could blame him.

Merlin, however, wasn't so concerned with being careful. "I hope you're able to keep the damage done to my house to a minimum today," he said, walking past me towards the tea table. I lowered my head ashamedly. I really was sorry about that. But I kept my mouth shut as the next person spoke up.

"Oh, forget about him," Yuffie declared, waving him off with a hand. "He's always trying to make me feel guilty for silly things, too." If that was supposed to make me feel better, it didn't work.

"Hey, kid, you okay?" Cid suddenly asked. "You look like you got something to say." It kind of surprised me that he was the first one to take notice of it.

I nodded to him, then faced my friends. "Guys, listen." My throat was dry. "Something happened to me last night, and… well, I guess I'll just show you." They were all silent and waiting. It wasn't until I had prepared to start the process again that I remembered the pain that came with it. Was I really ready to put myself through that again? Guess I'd find out…

I drew in a breath and closed my eyes to begin looking for that strange light. I didn't know any other way to go about doing this. I needed to be able to do it with_out_ using the Starlite's help, right? It wouldn't count for much otherwise.

I gritted my teeth against the sharp pain that shot through my head. But I wouldn't let my weakness hold me back. Not this time. The following second filled my heart with the same pain, but I felt the light set ablaze within it almost instantly. It brought a sense of comfort that willed me to push through the pain to reach out for it. But it was like one of those endless hallways from a dream that you could never reach the end of no matter how far you run. Finally I had to just take what felt like would be a dangerous leap towards it, metaphorically speaking.

It worked. Just barely, but it worked. I gasped on the outside as I felt that inward light flare up around me. Everyone took a step back, confused as to what was happening. I wasn't too sure myself, though I let it thrash about, building in strength and intensity. My hair flew up around me as if it were a visible wind. It made for a pretty lightshow, but there was something missing. I still had a firm grip on the power inside me, and I realized it grew brighter the more I focused and the harder I pushed its limits- that must have been how I controlled it.

A line from the journal suddenly flashed in the front of my mind. _"…memories must be what elicit this ultimate power of destruction."_ It wasn't so much the fact that an unknown memory was allowing me to be able to use the Starlite's power, but that my parents thought _destruction_ would result from it. What would happen if I continued? I… I couldn't risk hurting anybody.

I consciously let go of the light and felt it slip away until an empty feeling was all that was left. All was quiet now.

"So…what was that exactly?" Riku asked after a while.

"It's the power I've been looking for," I answered quietly, but resolutely.

"The Starlite's power?" Kairi inquired quickly. I nodded once. There was a pause before she also said, "How did you finally do it?" It was a fair enough question.

I couldn't hold back a scoff at the irony of what I was about to say. "It was the Starlite. Can you believe it? All this time we were running in circles and the answer was right in front of me. All I did was ask and it took care of the rest."

"Hey now, don't sell yourself short. It's still just a object; _you_ did it," Leon assured from his corner.

Yuffie nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, what he said. Besides, it doesn't matter _how_ you got it. All that matters is you got it! And you can go get your brother now, right?"

"Right," I told her with a small smile. Then I looked back to Riku. "Are you guys ready to leave?"

"Whenever you are. You're the one with the magic necklace," he said with his signature smirk. Kairi giggled. And Sora…hadn't said anything in a while. I turned to him.

"Sora?" He looked like he was deep in thought, which was something I didn't see often. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he said, replacing the serious look with a casual one. "I'm just thinking about what happened. You're sure that's what that weird guy wanted; the one that took your brother?"

I sighed. Then, for the second time today I answered, "Yes, I'm sure. Why?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Well… it just didn't look like much, is all."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"You started flashing like neon sign. _That's_ what he kidnapped Ciro for?"

I almost gave this thought consideration, but I remembered the journal again. "That was only a glimpse of it. According to my parents, it can be very dangerous. That's probably why it's so important to him."

"And you still think we should just hand it over to him?"

My expression turned hard. "If it means getting my brother back, yes."

He let the subject drop after that, although it didn't look like he was really finished. Whatever. Why would he bring this up _now_? We all knew, whether we wanted to admit it or not, that whatever that man needed the Starlite for couldn't be good. But we could deal with that _after_ we solved this problem.

Merlin reappeared with a bag in his hand, oblivious to the argument we were having. "Here, you seem to the responsible one, I want you to take some of my magic. Use it wisely now," he told Riku.

"If you're comparing me to Sora, then you're right," he said back, knowing full well the brunette was nearby.

"Hey!" Sora complained in a childish voice. "I'm responsible!"

Kairi took this as her chance to enter the conversation. "Just not very mature," she said, giggling some more.

Riku said something after that, but I had tuned them out by then. I was debating whether or not we should take the journal with us. If for some reason I did happen to fail this task, I might be able to bribe my way out with Ciro. The man could have both it and the Starlite for all I cared.

"Hey, Kairi," I started. This trio quit their fussing and she looked at me. "Can you fit this in your bag?" I handed her the book.

"I think so." She opened the flap and shifted some stuff around inside, then carefully eased it in. "Just barely, but yeah." She smiled at me.

"Great, then…can we go now?"

"Not before you give me a hug!" Yuffie exclaimed, rushing over and grabbing me up in a bone-crushing embrace. I let out a small yelp of surprise. "Be sure to visit sometime!" And then she set me down.

"Uh, we will," I told her, rubbing my arm. I watched as she made her way around the rest of our group and did the same thing.

Cid, Leon, and Merlin were standing off by the computer. None of them looked like they were much for hugs. Aerith, however, pushed them into saying some sort of farewell. Merlin declined anyway, but I heard him say something along the lines of "Good luck" under his breath as he walked away. Although I could have imagined that.

Then Aerith herself hugged everyone, told us to be careful, and once again reminded me of a mother. When she came to me she did something rather unexpected. "Here, your hair's a bit of a mess now," she whispered with a wink, and pulled the pink ribbon out of her own hair, handing it over to me. I was mildly shocked as I took it from her, not knowing how to respond. She laughed softly. "It's fine. I have plenty more of them at home."

"A-all right. Thank you." Before she could say anything I continued, because it had to be said. "No, really, thank you so much. I can't tell you how grateful I am to you guys for helping me. It means a lot." I made sure I looked at each and every one of them in the room with a grateful smile, then pulled my hair back and tied it up with the strip of shiny fabric. I already felt better without the mass of white suffocating me.

And to ruin the moment, I asked, "So, _now_ can we leave?" again. Everyone finally gave me their agreement. It had been a while since we had stood together in a circle, holding hands, ready to begin our journey again. Or rather, we would be ending it.

I gave one last caution while we began to glow. "You…might want to step back." They did as I instructed and waved us off as we slowly ascended into the air. I felt the urge to wave back, but that would have defeated the purpose, wouldn't it?

Seconds later we were disappearing through the pointed roof of Merlin's house, watching the others through the strange gaping hole we left in it. Whether or not they could see us through it as well, I didn't know. The higher up we went, the smaller everything became, until it was all a blur of people and buildings, the giant castle being the only exception. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Kairi staring intently at the scene, and I knew exactly what she was thinking about. I gave her hand a short squeeze, but she didn't acknowledge it.

A bluish-black color overtook our surroundings as we left the world behind. And when we broke apart in the safety of space, suddenly a new problem arose: where did we go now? This seemed to occur to everyone else about the same time.

I bit my lip. Surely there was a way to find him; the man wouldn't have left me with nothing. I just had to think.

Then the answer hit me smack in the face. _The Starlite. It _has_ to be the compass that will point me in the right direction._ It made sense.

I took hold of the charm and mentally whispered a single, desperate line to it.

_Take me to my brother._

It took a minute for anything to happen. And then a small opening appeared in front of me, growing wider while I just gawked at it. The others barely had time to gather around before something else strange happened: the little charm of my necklace floated up before my eyes.

"Huh?" I gasped. Now what? I felt a slight tugging at my neck, which quickly turned insistent, and then all of a sudden I was being sucked into the odd hole in the middle of space. Kairi bumped into me just then, and I realized we were all being pulled towards it. It wasn't like there was anything to hold onto, so I settled for screaming instead.

_What in the world is happening?_

We were dumped into a pitch black area. Except that wasn't even accurate; it was a much, much darker, empty void of a black completely lacking in any sort of life.

"What is this place?" Kairi's voice echoed off the walls that didn't appear to exist.

"Don't know," Riku said, glancing around. Then he turned back to me. "Luna, what did you do?"

"I-I didn't do anything!" I shouted, panicked.

"How do we get out?" Sora asked, looking at the direction from which we had come, but the opening was gone. Meaning we were trapped.

And as if that thought had triggered it, we were all jerked forward again, flying blindly through the abyss by some unknown force. I had no idea how long things stayed like that, but after a while I noticed something different. Up ahead was a light, and we were closing in on it fast. I finally made it out to be another hole. We came to a heart-stopping halt just before it.

"Well, I guess that's your answer," Riku said to Sora, who didn't respond.

I cautiously approached the bizarre, window-like opening and peered through it. It was definitely a way out. I took a gulp and flew through to the other side, the others following close behind. It wasn't long before I saw the single world directly ahead, but a good distance away. And that was when it dawned on me.

"Guys, I don't think we came here by mistake," I murmured barely above a whisper, fingering the Starlite. No, there was only one reasonable explanation for where we were now, and I had a good idea of what it was.

I took off towards the monochrome world in a rush. I heard the faint shouts for me to wait, but they could catch up later. I couldn't have stayed still even if I _had _wanted to at this point.

I hadn't had a need to use my Zenith since Never Land, which seemed forever ago now, but I fell into its distinct focus easily enough. The rest of the universe blurred so that only my target was the only thing I could make out, and I felt my body begin to move considerably faster.

The minutes it probably took to get there felt like maybe three or four seconds, as if time itself had actually sped up as well. I pulled myself out of the trance when I was close enough to see the lone building set on the colorless landscape, empty like the hollow portal that brought us here. _Like a wasteland…_

I must have been floating there longer than I thought, studying the world until my eyes hurt, because my friends were suddenly right behind me.

"Hey, how many times do we have to tell you not to go off on your own?" Sora complained, although he was probably just teasing.

When it was apparent I wasn't going to give some sort of reply, Riku turned the conversation back to the situation at hand. "You really think this is where they're keeping him?" I never did figure out where his ability to read minds came from.

"Yeah, I do."

"Well then come on! I've been dying to meet this brother of yours!" Kairi declared. She had obviously spent too much time with Yuffie. But it reminded me that along with saving him came the fact that I could _see_ Ciro again! That detail had been pushed to the back of my mind somewhere along the way, and I had forgotten to think about it like that. We wasted no more time in landing. Little clouds of dust rose up around the others as they dropped to the ground. From down here, the place looked even more eerie. The sky, or what should have been the sky, was a dark, ominous color that did nothing to raise my spirits. And then there was the two-story, cement edifice jutting up out of the earth. It looked utterly abandoned.

But it was definitely the right place.

I continued towards the door, hand shaking as I pushed it open. The room, though large and cluttered appeared to be empty, so I stepped inside. There were computers of all kinds everywhere, tables were covered in huge blueprints, but again, no one.

I gathered all the courage I could, pushed it up my throat, and called out, "Ciro?"

* * *

I had been sitting in dead silence for an hour or so now. I usually heard some sort of noise from up above, be it the shuffling of feet or a door slamming. But even my own heavy breathing had been reduced to a boring quietude as well. And I had to admit, I hated this even more than listening to the endless arguments that assured me that I at least wasn't completely alone.

I rested my head against a wall and shut my eyes. I'd always taken pride in my independence; I didn't need to rely on anyone but myself to get things done. And yet here I was reverting back to childish mannerisms because I had no one to talk to or listen to, and it was driving me crazy. Because of this, I found myself thinking about the last time I had heard Luna's voice- such a long time ago, and wondered if I'd ever get the chance to talk to her one last time, even if it was just to say goodbye.

But my thoughts were short-lived as the quiet was suddenly disrupted.

"Ciro?" It echoed off the walls and down the stairwell, straight into my ears. My head back shot up instantly. My first assumption was that I was hearing things, but after the strange scream the day before, I couldn't just ignore it. Especially when it sounded so much like _her_. I climbed to my feet slowly and gripped the prison bars. I could only see part the way up the stairs, but I vainly persisted to look anyway. I opened my mouth to answer the call, to find out if she was really here, but I realized I didn't want to know. I felt sick as another thought unwittingly entered my mind:

Could Nero's predictions at last be coming true?

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Nine complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)


	30. Chapter Thirty

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Thirty

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

"Ciro!" I tried again after a few seconds when there was no reply. Still nothing.

"Come on; we might as well just look around," Sora said. I for one didn't have any objections.

Around the room there were dozens of machines with hundreds of blinking lights and meters and screens filled with numbers and measurements. The walls were cement and the floor was a dreary metallic color. The hard, cold, sterile feeling of a laboratory. Over in a corner I spotted a set of stairs that led upwards, and another that probably led down to a basement in the opposite corner. I was about to start towards the second floor, but Kairi was a step ahead of me. So I was in the process of turning to the basement stairs when a crisp "Luna!" rang out through the air. In an instant I was at the half-ajar door from which the sound came. I jerked it open the rest of the way and flew down the narrow hall with the others only a few steps behind me. I burst through the opening at the bottom into a small room that contained a desk, a single window, and a set of prison bars.

And behind the bars was a frail looking Ciro.

The moment his eyes registered my presence, they bulged even wider than they had been, and his arms fell to his sides. He looked sort of…scared to see me, not that I gave that notion much thought. I went towards him, taking his hand in mine, using the other to wipe away a thin stream of tears that was starting to run down my face.

I choked out something that was supposed to be "Hello", but ended up sounding nothing like it.

However, Ciro wasn't so overcome with emotion like me, for when he spoke he only sounded grave. "You shouldn't be here."

My hand instinctively squeezed his harder. "What are you talking about? Of course I should!"

Ciro was about to speak again when Riku cut him off. "I think these might be helpful," he said, jingling a set of keys he must have picked up off the desk in his hand.

My brother seemed to notice my friends just then. "Who are they?" he whispered to me, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Typical Ciro, and it made me laugh that he hadn't changed a bit.

"The- these are my friends." I stepped aside so they could introduce themselves.

"I'm Kairi. It's nice to finally meet you," she said brightly. Her hands were clasped together behind her.

"Sora," he said next. "And yeah, we've heard a lot about you."

Riku had walked up to the lock of the prison by now. "Riku," was all he said as he slipped the key in its corresponding keyhole. Standing side by side, I, for the strangest reason, noticed that he was actually a couple inches taller than my brother. Why I was so amazed by this was beyond me, but given my situation, I thought it okay to think about silly things like that. Finally a clink was heard, and Riku pulled the cage door open.

I hurried over to hug the only family member I had left. He hugged me back. I proceeded crying into his chest, which he didn't seem to mind. After a few minutes of this, he pulled me back, looked directly into my eyes, and said without so much as a bit of hesitation, "Leave."

It felt like a bullet through my heart. "What? No!" I yelled at him. "Do you know how much I've missed you? How hard I worked to _find_ you? I- I'm not-"

"I've missed you, too, but that's not the point. Nero's probably going to be back soon, and I can't let him find you here! So go back the way you came while you still have the time."

"Who?" I asked. He seemed unsure of how to answer the question.

"He's the one that kidnapped you, isn't he?" Sora spoke up. Ciro nodded, and Sora grimaced.

"But, Ciro, I have what he wants; I can show him how to use the Starlite's power!" What about that wasn't clear? Did he even know that this deal for his life existed?

Surprise flickered across his fiery eyes. "You mean you actually figured it out?"

It was my turn to nod. "Yes! Now we can go home!" I cried, not bothering to hide my excitement.

He let out an angry sigh and held my shoulders. "You don't get it. _He _can't use the Starlite- only you can. And if you don't leave now, he's going to find a way to make you use it for him."

I was taken aback and my jaw dropped a little. "What?"

"Perhaps I could be of some assistance," said an unfamiliar voice in a slight accent I couldn't place. I spun around to face a figure walking down the stairs. Sora, Riku, and Kairi walked over to stand next to us, and Ciro positioned himself in front of me, but I leaned around to see who it was. A middle-aged looking man; blonde hair coiffed neatly around his face, soft blue eyes that cast a hard gaze, and he was wearing a long, white lab coat. I got the feeling that I was missing something.

"You," Ciro hissed at him.

"Why hello, Ciro. I've wanted to properly meet you again for quite a while now. And Luna, too. I'm assuming the three of you came with her," the strange man said to my friends. "Which ones of you have the Keyblades?" In response, they all summoned their weapons. He hardly seemed surprised. "Oh, I see."

"What do you want?" Riku asked him.

"Me? I simply want what is rightfully mine," he answered cryptically. "Would you like to hear the tale? I'm sure after all you've been through that an explanation would be nice." No one said anything, which he took as permission to continue. He chuckled before saying, "You see, that necklace you're wearing, Luna, is a product of your parents' efforts."

"I know that," I said, coming out from my hiding place.

"So then you found the journal? Wonderful! May I see it?"

Kairi looked to me, and since I didn't know what else to do, I told her to give it to him. She took the object out of her bag and tossed it to him. He looked at it with a sort of awe in his eyes.

"If you've read it, you should know about their little project. I myself do not know which details they decided to put in here, but my guess is that they didn't include me. Am I right?" He locked his eyes with mine.

Just then Ciro exclaimed, "Wait a second, I know who you are now!" surprising everyone around him. "I remember you from when I was a kid. You… you came to our house all the time."

"Correct. I was a good friend of your parents'. My name is Cosmus."

I gasped. "Cosmus?" I squeaked out. "Y- yes. You were in the journal, once."

"How flattering, but _you_ still don't seem to know who exactly I am." He paused, then said, "Your parents' success with the Starlite is all because of me; I am the one who gave them the Novarine. But, and I feel I should tell you now, it would be accurate to also say that I am the reason they are dead." Something akin to guilt, maybe even grief, passed over his face. "But let me start from the beginning. As children, the three of us aspired to study science, and the most prestigious job out there was working for Ansem as one of his apprentices. We all showed talent, but when it came time for Ansem to decide who to would be chosen, I was not. It wasn't long after that they married, and you two were born. Throughout the course of our friendship, I never was jealous of them. Never, until the day I handed over that blasted meteorite." His composure faltered for a second. He turned around to hide this and continued. "I felt I should be the one to study it like a proper scientist. So I saved a bit, just for me, which I never told them about." He pulled a dull orange, lopsided rock out of his pocket. "Of course, you can probably figure out the rest. They began Project: Starlite and, as their friend, promised me they would tell me all they discovered. It was a fine system, one that worked well for all of us, but then," he faced us again, "one day they told me that they couldn't do it anymore; they either had to take full-credit for the project, or else end it, and they chose the former. I was outraged that my closest friends would betray me in such a way that I said some things I regretted later."

A single thought formed in my head: _No._ I suddenly knew what he would say next, but I didn't want to hear it- didn't want to relive that terrible night _again_. But I couldn't find the words to stop him, so he kept going.

"My plan was simple: all I needed was their precious journal to prove my worth, and I set out to steal it. But things went awry. By the end of the night, my friends were dead, their house destroyed, and their children missing."

My knees nearly buckled at this, and I would have fallen if Ciro had not been there to catch me. He looked just as tense as I was, but not nearly as shocked. "You knew about all this, didn't you?" I asked. His face fell. A kind of anger rose up in me. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" I half-yelled at him.

He was taken aback by my tone. "Because I wanted you to have a normal life! Do you want my side of the story? That night, I had no idea what I was doing. I was with our parents during the fire. And I could tell by the look in their eyes they knew they… they would…" He choked up. "They told me to take you and to get as far away as possible, but I had to fight Nero before I was able to reach you. I was so small; it was sheer luck I escaped with my life and one of his swords. Then you used the Starlite and we left Radiant Garden for good. Then we crash-landed on Galaxy and you passed out. When you came to, you couldn't remember any of it. You didn't even remember your name at first. So I thought that…we could just start over. I told you all sorts of stories about our life there, and you believed it. All of it. I thought we were safe."

"Did you not think I would have wanted the truth?" I was crying again, but for a different reason.

"Of course I did! But I… I just didn't want you to get hurt. I couldn't have lived with myself if I had done that to you again."

Again? "What do you mean?"

It was obvious he didn't want to answer the question. So I spoke a little louder. "What do you mean, Ciro?"

"…It was my fault you were chosen for the Starlite."

"Yes, that's right, isn't it? I do remember them telling me about that," Cosmus commented, though I figured it was more to himself than anything. Ciro continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"They had to take us to work with them all the time when we were little. And I supposed to watch you, like I always was. You were barely three then. They were busy working on something. I wasn't paying attention and you got away from me. They next thing I knew, they were yelling about you having activated some sort of machine, which I learned later was what chose their test subject. They were so mad at me, going off for days about how they could possibly endanger their daughter with this, and I hated myself for it. After that I just couldn't stand the thought of letting you out of my sight again."

The anger suddenly shifted directions and was now redirected towards myself. It occurred to me just then that all these years he'd been living with this nonsensical guilt and I had never even thought to ask him. I had always considered myself to be an expert on empathy, at least where it concerned Ciro. And I had concluded a long time ago that broody and overprotective was just who he was. How could I have overlooked something like this?

I took a breath and found his hand again. "Come on now, you can't really be blaming yourself for that," I said softly. "It was an accident, and besides, I'm…glad I have the Starlite. But how 'bout we stop keeping secrets now, okay?" Ciro seemed determined to remain silent. "Please. I just don't want you to worry anymore." And then I decided to add, "And if it'll help, I'll learn to take better care of myself."

That got a small laugh out of him, but it still took a moment for him to say "Promise?"

I smiled wholeheartedly. "Promise." We hugged again, and it felt like some cheesy happy ending. But I was perfectly okay with that.

I heard another voice groan somewhere nearby. "I think I'm going to be sick."

My legs went weak again at the recognition of who had spoken. Ciro and I pulled apart and all eyes in the room shifted towards the figure emerging from the shadows. "Oops. Did I ruin the moment?" asked the man in black. Nero. His arms were crossed and his eyes were trained on me. "Don't let me interrupt your family reunion." I couldn't help thinking about when he could have possibly gotten here, or had he been standing there the entire time?

"You stay away from us," Ciro hissed at him.

Sora and Riku ran in-between us, blocking the man's path. "We've got your back," Sora called over his shoulder. Kairi came up beside me, looking no less fierce than the others with her Keyblade in her hands.

But Nero just rolled his eyes. "Please, not this again," he said, bored. He snapped his fingers and a blue-tinted wall of energy appeared, moving to knock each Keyblade wielder out of the way. Unfortunately, it happened too quickly for anyone to dodge, and they were sent sprawling to the floor. Even my attempt to at least save Kairi failed. The wall vanished after that.

"Nero, please; there's no reason to hurt them," said Cosmus, rubbing his temple tiredly.

The younger man shot an annoyed look at him. "No? They were standing in my way. Didn't we decide that we're not going to tolerate that anymore? It's been twelve years. I _want_ the power; the one _you_ promised me."

Maybe it was the look of pure confusion on my face that prompted Cosmus to explain this next part. He regained the stern expression and said with zero emotion, "To help me with my plan, I enlisted the help of a young boy; a runaway I found on the streets. He was badly in need of a place to stay, and I was determined to get the credit I deserved. So we made a deal; in exchange for his assistance I would give to him the power he wished to possess. When you vanished, there was nothing we could do but go after you. Using our piece of the Novarine, we managed to find an empty little world on the edge of the universe that we made our home for the next decade. A world we named after the black hole that brought us here. We had the time and privacy we needed to form our next strategy. There were plenty of detours and mistakes along the way, but it has finally come to this. And now that I have the journal," he held it up for display, "I will keep my end of the bargain."

Three things happened in the same amount of seconds. In the first second, Nero moved with superhuman speed to my side. In the next, he took my arm and pulled something out of his pocket. And in the third, the needle of a syringe was pushed into my wrist and a dark liquid began flowing into my body. I had never been particularly scared of needles and yet, the moment I processed all this, I felt woozy. Maybe I even fell. My mind was busy fogging over while my vision blurred the world to a bunch of unrecognizable shapes. I could hear shouting somewhere nearby, but I couldn't tell who was talking or what they were saying. Weirdest of all, I realized that I didn't care. A foreign voice that couldn't have been my own repeated this like an echo throughout my being, over and over and over until I finally felt disconnected from everything but that one fact that nothing at all in the world mattered to me.

Funny how fast things can take a turn for the worst.

* * *

Chapter Thirty complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the next chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

Thought I'd better update before the world ends ;D


	31. Chapter Thirty One

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Thirty-One

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

Too late.

I was too late.

Once again, I couldn't stop him.

_Why am I always too late?_

My hand flew up and connected with the side of Nero's masked face before I even knew what I was doing. He stumbled back a couple steps but was otherwise completely unfazed. Behind me, the shuffling of feet and quiet murmurs told me that Luna's friends had gone to her aid, for which I was thankful. Now I could give my full attention to Nero. But he wasn't even looking at me.

"Don't bother. She can't hear you," he said to them.

A nerve snapped inside me. "What did you do to her?" I screamed at him, fists prepared if I needed them.

His face twisted into a cocky sneer as he pulled out the syringe again and tossed it to me. I recoiled at the sight of the stuff inside it and dropped it. Cracks formed in the thin glass on impact. The thick, dark substance in it was swimming around as if it were alive. Curiosity finally won me over and I chanced a look back at my sister, who was collapsed on the floor and surrounded by three other figures.

"Luna, come on; wake up!" the red-headed girl, whatever her name was, pleaded with her unmoving body. She lay as still as death, skin unnaturally pale, but what got me- what made me cringe with fear- was her eyes. They were wide open, but their normally bright magenta color was faded, like the light had been sucked out of them.

"What did you do?" I said again, but my voice cracked.

I could practically hear the sadistic smirk taunting me as he spoke. "She's not dead, if that's what you're asking. You'll have to talk to the Doc if you want the logistics of it, though. He's the science whiz here."

Cosmus. I had forgotten he was even still here, but the moment my vision found him, my feet were already moving. I trapped him a corner so that he had nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. "You. How can you stand here and let him hurt the only family I have left?"

"This is none of my concern anymore." His grip around the book in his hands tightened.

I almost couldn't believe I'd heard that. "None of your _concern_? It's your fault any of this happened to begin with! My parents are _dead_ because of you! I won't let you take Luna away, too." I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next, but with all this pent-up anger coming out so suddenly, I had to do _something_. But I was interrupted.

"I'm getting impatient. Is it ready yet?" Nero asked.

Cosmus and I stared each other down. "Yes, it should be," he said slowly. He was challenging me and we both knew it. Which is why I had to force myself to turn away.

The way his face changed suggested that his leer grew wider. "Luna, get up." He spoke calmly, clearly, authoritatively.

She lay still for maybe a full minute and then slowly her legs bent and she pulled herself into an awkward standing position. I wanted to believe I saw real color briefly flicker across her eyes, like she was fighting against whatever was in her system now. But if anything they grew duller. Then Nero spoke again.

"The rest of you have outlived your usefulness. Luna, eliminate them."

My blood ran cold and the only thing I could think of was _Luna isn't going to help me by her own will, that's true_.

A foolish part of me thought that maybe she _would _somehow be able refuse it, but _we've been very busy these last few years, working on something that should fix that problem_ was too strong to ignore and I just knew it would be no use. He had turned her into his little puppet with nothing to do but what her master commanded. Her marionette arm extended before her and something materialized into existence within her hand. The next thing I knew she was charging, weapon at the ready, towards me. But I couldn't move- not to stop her, disarm her, or even dodge the incoming attack. Because it was still Luna. Nero knew this, I was sure.

Her blade was cutting through the air when I was pushed roughly to the floor. The clash of metal on metal echoed throughout the small room. I turned as quickly as I could to observe the scene from my new vantage. The oldest boy- Riku, I thought- was staring down at me, so I figured it was probably him that saved my life. But it was the brunette that had his Keyblade locked in combat with Luna's.

Wait, what?

I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things, but the image didn't disappear. She was indeed holding something that looked very similar to the infamous Keyblade. She was gripping the handle of a strangely-shaped hilt, from which sprouted two silver rods. Interlocked between them was a gold crescent for the blade, and a small, black star hung from a thin chain at the bottom.

That was when I noticed she wasn't wearing the Starlite anymore.

"Can you fight?" Riku asked, crashing my train of thought. Seeing as I was unarmed, that would be a no. But more than that, even if I _was_ able, I couldn't do it. He seemed to understand despite my lack of response, so he nodded and I hung my head. "Kairi, protect him," he shouted to the girl, even though she was only a few feet away. In an instant she was beside me, trying, I guess, to look as comforting as possible.

Then the question just slipped out. "Has Luna had a Keyblade all this time?" I whispered, only because it was the best I could do.

She looked surprised, glancing over to the battle. "No; this is the first time any of us have seen it."

My eyes narrowed. _Then how did she do it?_

"The Starlite truly is an amazing device, isn't it?" Nero said. He was again leaning against a wall, looking disgustingly smug. "Or, more accurately, the Novarine. You must be dying to know how a weak-hearted girl like Luna was able to conjure up a Keyblade." His glare told me that comment was directed at me. Then he looked to the corner. "Come on, Doc. This is your chance to flaunt that credit you wanted so bad."

"Not like this," the older man retorted quickly. I could have sworn I saw the confidence in Nero's eyes retreat, if only for a moment. More wishful thinking? "This was never about _parading_ my success around. Especially in front of those whose opinion means nothing. My work here is done, and I will not squander any more time." With that, he pocketed the journal and Novarine, and began to walk away. But before disappearing into the stairwell, he said over his shoulder, "But if you must know, Luna's so-called 'Keyblade' is a fraud. There are many things the Novarine _can _do, but calling upon such forces as light and darkness is not one of them. Honestly, Nero, I thought you would have realized that." His voice was sharp and condescending.

A deadly silence, only filled by the sound of distant sound of fighting, overtook the room. Luna's two friends currently had her backed up against a wall, but it was taking both boys to keep her there. Her arms swung mechanically in all directions, looking for an opportunity to strike and escape. Real or not, her weapon was definitely giving them a hard time.

When I looked back to Nero, his gaze had hardened ten times over, yet he made no attempt to stop Cosmus. He was visibly losing his cool, and whatever rage he had been keeping locked up inside nearly exploded out of him in those few seconds. His fingers clenched tightly together by his sides. His entire form was rigid and he noticeably shook with anger. But the scariest part was that I'd seen this kind of fury many times before.

Every time I looked in a mirror. And I knew it didn't exist without reason. It was something that was built up over time- a long time. All those arguments I'd heard between the two of them in the weeks I'd been here must have been about more than I thought. I briefly allowed myself to wonder if I had misjudged the situation.

"Fine then," Nero whispered viciously. "Leave if you want. I don't need you anymore." Without even turning away, he gave his next command. "Luna," she stopped suddenly, awaiting his next words, "the time has come to put an end to all of this. Use your power and destroy everything here."

But that statement ended those doubts.

Immediately Luna dropped her Keyblade. It vanished into thin air before it even hit the floor, and the Starlite suddenly reappeared around her neck with a flash. Her chin tilted slightly upwards as the air began to shift around her. Slowly at first, but rapidly building up in strength. It swirled like a tornado, forcing the Keyblade wielders back. Their calls to her fell on deaf ears. Either that or she didn't have the ability to respond. Both thoughts frightened me.

_She's really going to do this. _If my parents' calculations were correct, then none of us would survive whatever was about to happen. _What is he thinking?_

A bright light in the corner of my eye once again averted my attention back to Nero. He had his hands held out in front of him, a blue-colored energy emanating from them and spreading out like a dome around him.

My eyes narrowed. _What is he planning to do? Use that as a shield to save himself while he watches the rest of us die?_

A new wave of anger-fueled energy shot through me, and I found myself running, leaping, and tackling Nero to the ground. The would-be force field faded completely because of the disruption. "Wait!" Kairi shouted, but I paid her no heed. I barely even heard her over the sound of my own heart pounding wildly in my ears. I was only able to land one blow on him before I was flipped over onto my back. I hit my head hard in the process, resulting in both dizziness and pain.

Kairi was the first person who ran over to help me, but she was quickly followed by Riku and the other boy. I attempted to shoo them away with, "Don't worry about me! Help Luna!" but that only worked for the first two. The remaining brunette continued towards me with an annoyingly determined look in his eyes.

Nero locked both of his hands around my neck and began to squeeze. "Looks like this is goodbye, old friend," he spat out. I pulled as hard as I could on his grip, but the lack of oxygen was affecting my strength. I struggled for an idea, some way to get out of this, but came up with nothing. Until my eyes landed on the sheathed sword Nero was carrying on his back. There was no time to give the notion much thought, so I reached up and grabbed the handle, withdrew the weapon, and plunged it into his black-clad side.

A pained look crossed his features instantly. His grasp on me loosened in favor of clutching his wound, giving me the chance to breathe again. I sucked in as much air as I could to compensate for the moments without any, which, in hindsight, wasn't the smartest plan. He lay there paralyzed while I stood up, choking, head reeling. My neck was terribly sore, and I had to force myself to slow my breathing.

"And here I…thought…you were too…weak to…" Nero said in-between winces. Beside him was his sword, the end of which was covered in red.

I was too lost in my thoughts to respond right then. _Now what? Is he going to die now, too? Will it be my fault?_

A voice penetrated my thoughts. "Hey, are you okay?" I blinked and realized it was Luna's friend talking. He had his golden Keyblade pointed at Nero, but the question must have been for me.

"I'm fine," I murmured. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"Come on, is that…really necessary? I can't even…stand up," Nero said to the boy beside me.

"I don't think I have to believe anything you say at this point," he countered.

"Sora!" Kairi yelled, even though the room was now silent. We both turned. "Luna, she's-"

"We need to get out of here! _Now_!" Riku cut her off. It was only then I noticed what was happening. Luna's levitating body was barely visible behind a wall of light that was spinning chaotically. Smaller beams of light seemed to be shooting off every which way, and, if I was seeing correctly, the area around her was _shaking_.

"You know…" Nero started. "The Starlite's power is going to… kill us all. There's nothing you…can do now. It's too late."

"It's only too late if we give up. Impossible situations have never stopped us before," Sora said. Honestly it just sounded like a lost cause to me. Was it so wrong to accept death that's certain?

I still felt the man watching me, seeing how I would react. Even at death's gate he insisted on tormenting me. "You don't care, then? That your plan failed?" I said quietly.

There was a pause before he answered. "I…don't get to use Luna to her fullest potential, no, but…at least I get the satisfaction of bringing you down with me. Luna might not even survive."

Those words launched me back into reality at full force.

"And since...I'm sure you're wondering, the Doc's probably long gone by now; used the Novarine…to hightail it out of here with that journal."

"I'm getting Kairi out. Sora, come on!" Riku shouted, making his towards the staircase.

"But what about Luna?" he called back.

"No, he's right," I suddenly heard myself say. "Go with your friends; I'm staying here- with Luna." And before he could protest I was running, sprinting towards the dome encasing my sister, and diving inside. There at the eye of the storm I found her, hanging limply in the air by an invisible string. Her eyes were shut gently as if she was simply sleeping. The little, black charm on the end of her necklace was radiating brightly.

I didn't know what I thought I could do by jumping in here, but as long as I was able to I would do my best to protect her. I promised her that a long time ago.

I wrapped my arms around her small figure, nostalgia flooding my senses. I could smell the trees that made up the forests of Galaxy. The sound of the rocks being skipped along the lake. A little girl in a pink dress with a smile on her face. She ran and hugged me tightly. I returned the gesture because I knew it made her feel safe, loved.

Yes. I was her brother, and I would do whatever it took to provide her with a life where she could be happy like that again. Even at the cost of my own.

That was the last thing I thought before the world went dark.

* * *

Chapter Thirty-One complete. Please review, and I'll try to have the LAST REMAINING chapter out as soon as possible. Thank you for reading :)

…

The forces of the universe have been conspiring against me for the last two months. I swear ._.


	32. Chapter Thirty Two

**Cosmic Hearts**

Chapter Thirty-Two

_Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts_

* * *

What was it like knowing you had no control over your own body or actions? Surprisingly peaceful. At first, anyway. After the initial dizziness, my world had slowed to a stop and dimmed to black. I stood there, suspended in the nothingness, for what felt like forever. There was no light, no sign of anything for as far as I could see. But there was sound. A low whisper that came from nowhere, which could have been anywhere, really, kept saying things like, "Give up," and "You've already lost." I didn't know _who_ exactly was speaking, but I felt like they were right. So, for a while, I listened to it, and believed it. And that all that happened for the longest time.

Then something disrupted this cycle.

A scream cut through the taunts—a familiar voice filled with anger and pain, but before I could place it, it was gone. After that I noticed that the constant reminders of defeat became just a little less constant, and the strength I had lacked to move up till that point returned to me. My limbs were heavy and slow, but I found it to be better than nothing. I was also certain that whatever had happened was a one-time thing.

Until the darkness suddenly lit up all around me with scenes of fighting and falling and arms wrapping around me and then…light. Blinding, burning, bright. I covered my eyes and waited until the stinging on my skin faded to look again. In place of pitch black was something I actually recognized: a lake. _My_ lake. I was now standing on its grassy shore, looking out at the place I used to call home. Was I dreaming, or had I simply lost my mind?

Or maybe I was dead.

I looked up at the twinkling stars in the night sky. The moon was hidden beneath a gathering of clouds, but its radiance shone through anyway. All was quiet now.

A strange sensation came over me—sort of like the whispers from before, but different because the thought was entirely my own.

_My job is done now. I'm back where I belong._

It made me smile. For whatever reason it seemed to me that it had been a long time since I'd felt that way.

And yet something was missing. It took me several minutes to figure out exactly what was wrong.

_I'm alone._

Was it supposed to be this way? I wasn't sure. I once more considered the idea that perhaps I'd died sometime in the past. That would explain a few things.

_Should I be upset?_

Were people normally upset about their death? Should I have even been capable of whatever kind of existence one would call this?

The moonlight finally found its way upon the water. It began to shimmer, reflecting the glitter of stars above. My fascination with the phenomena turned to confusion as a blurry image appeared beneath the surface. It focused and unfocused with the current, the shapes inside taking on the form of a person. A boy. Dark hair. Flaming eyes.

The sight tugged at something in the back of my mind.

_I know you._

Another picture swam into view next to it. And then another and another and another. Countless faces developed before me, each one ringing bell after bell in my head, but I couldn't recall a single thing about any of them, other than that they were my _friends_ and I _trusted_ them. I lifted a finger as if to touch the images, thinking that maybe that would help me remember. I pulled back when everything before me shifted. Every figure came together in the center, fashioning into a new, single form: myself.

I remained that way for yet another while, staring at my own reflection like it was a complete stranger. This little girl with snow-white hair was someone completely different from me. She didn't have any idea what the world was really like, had never felt immense sadness I was beginning to. She knew only what her little village provided her.

I probably could have spent the rest of eternity like that, standing here in this twisted, carefree dimension. If I was truly dead and gone, then why not?

The answer was immediate: because it wasn't my time.

I looked up one more time, realizing that my next move would mean leaving this place of security and peace forever. But I was okay with that. There were still people that needed me, who _I _needed, so I couldn't die yet.

I took a step back and dove forward headfirst, like the practiced swimmer I was, but instead of water, a flood of pain washed over me.

* * *

My eyes shot open at the severity and suddenness of it. Spots danced in my rapidly moving vision for a moment before it evened out. I was flat on my back, gasping hard, shuddering horribly, but I couldn't remember what had happened to make me this way. My head felt foggy, and the last thing I recalled seeing before now was a pair of dark eyes boring into my own.

Overhead the blue-black sky swirled and shifted with a visible mist. I coughed, then instantly wished I hadn't. It was smoke. The air was thick with the stuff. Then I noticed the crumbling remains of what I could only guess used to be a building. Broken stone walls lay in heaps; metal pipes and shredded machinery littered the surrounding area. I was in the middle of it all, confused and aching. I attempted to move an arm, only to feel something relatively soft in the way. I turned my head to find what looked like a person, asleep. It occurred to me that he might be hurt worse than I was, so I painstakingly pushed myself into a sitting position and pulled him over on his side so I could see his face.

What happened next caught me off guard. Seeing him like that brought on a wave of memories, both old and recent, all spinning through my head at once. I remembered the day we were first attacked by Nero, when I received the Starlite, then crash landing on the Destiny Islands. Meeting all the islanders, and creating a new home for myself. Then facing Nero again with his challenge to free my brother. I relived the entire journey, from the race in Never Land to the tournament at the Coliseum to finally discovering the secret in my past and unlocking the Starlite's power—all in those few seconds.

But then there were other details that also came back to me, like failing to save Ciro and falling unconscious to a simple pinprick in my wrist. And, of course, what I'd done under Nero's control.

All this damage, I realized, was because of _me_.

I felt sick to my stomach as another thought dawned on me. "Ciro!" I shrieked. I threw my arms around his body and shook hard, willing him to wake up; to give some sign that he was okay. "Ciro, please, say something!" I begged. "_Please_!" I couldn't lose him now, not after everything I'd done to make it this far! Tears formed and fell from my eyes, hitting his unmoving chest. Was I really too late? Were all my efforts worthless? My aching arms gave out after mere minutes and I collapsed on top of him, sobbing. "It's just not fair," I squeaked out.

I was unsure I really felt the rising motion beneath me at first. I lifted my head and watched in awe as it happened again. The wonderful sound of inhaling filled my ears; slow, ragged, but _there_. My gaze darted to his face again, the pain I felt in my own body melting away as his eyes fluttered open. He opened his mouth just barely, and breathed out, "Luna."

"Oh," I gasped. Ciro groaned, rolling his head to the side. I raised a hand to help, then retreated, wondering if that was really a good idea. He began pushing himself up, so I said, "Hey, take it easy," albeit a little hoarsely.

He appeared to be just as confused as I was, but he understood well enough what I did: the two of us _should_ have been dead, but weren't. "Are you okay?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"I should be asking you that," I sputtered. " I… I really thought you were gone for a second." A twinge of pain shot through my leg, causing me to wince. Ciro immediately took notice of it, even though he wasn't in such good condition, either. "I'm fine," I assured.

He eyed me suspiciously, then sighed and rubbed his arm tenderly. "I can't believe we're alive," he whispered.

I didn't say anything to that, but I was thinking the same thing. I didn't know for sure what exactly the Starlite's power had done, but from the looks of it, it was pretty bad. How had either of us possibly survived what had destroyed everything else?

I shook my head vigorously. What did it matter? The important thing was that we_ had _survived. And I wasn't going to question that. It wasn't worth it.

The next few minutes consisted mainly of silence, only filled by the steady sounds of breathing. It was strange, almost too quiet. By now I felt there should have been some sort of ridiculous comment about the weather or something, but I didn't know why. It wasn't the sort of thing Ciro would say, nor I. And of course that begged the question, _then who_? Was there even anyone else _on_ this world?

"Wait a second…" I whispered to myself. My eyes shot open as I realized who was missing. My legs snapped straight with a surge of adrenaline as I tried to stand up, but not even a second later I came crashing back down. Pain lanced throughout my entire leg.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Ciro demanded.

"Where are they?" I cried out, "Where are my friends?"

Confusion flashed across his face, laced with the unmistakable trace of conflict I'd seen countless times before. His mouth slowly shut, indicating that we were thinking the exact same thing.

Something interrupted my fear. "Luna?" a distant voice called back. "Is that you?" It was a voice I knew.

I whipped my head in the direction it came from. "We- we're over here!" A speck appeared across the way. On closer inspection, I noticed an arm waving above a distinctly red head.

I smiled with unbelievable relief. "They're…all right. Everyone's all right."

Minutes later the three of them were slowing to a stop before us. I examined them with joy. Sora was covered in dirt and scratches, and walked with a slight limp, but otherwise seemed okay. Riku was holding his shoulder, having to shrug off his long hair every now and then, and Kairi was chipper as ever. If anything was wrong with her, she wasn't showing it. She bent down to give me a hug, and I let her despite the pain it brought.

"You know, it's great you guys are okay," Ciro started, "but if you don't mind my asking, how-"

"How did we do it?" Riku interrupted, "I guess the easiest way to put it is that we got lucky."

"Riku and I ran into Cosmus before you…well…" Kairi gestured around her. My ears perked up at the mention of Cosmus. "He used that rock to make some sort of shield, and that's how we avoided the worst of it. Riku got a little banged up, though."

"But this," his shoulder, I guessed, "isn't as bad as the other guy. When we left him he was unconscious."

Ciro's gaze hardened. "Think he's still that way?" They both shrugged. There was a pause in the conversation that lasted a tad too long.

"What about you, Sora?" I asked only to change the subject. I still didn't think this was anything worth fretting over, though.

He was scratching his head when he answered. "Heh, I wasn't quite as fortunate. I got stuck under a bunch of the rubble when the building collapsed. These two found me a few minutes ago and helped me out."

"Sounds pretty fortunate if you ask me," I exclaimed, wide-eyed.

Ciro hung his head. "This whole situation is miserable," he muttered, probably to himself.

"Well, it's all over now. And hey, at least the weather's clearing up," Sora commented. It was true; the smoke in the air was starting to thin.

I let out a small chuckle. All was indeed well again. "I'm so happy you're all back." Everyone agreed to that.

"Now that this _is _over, shouldn't we be finding a way to get back home?" Kairi said.

"I think that's Luna's specialty," Riku replied.

I nodded. "Right." I shifted myself into a comfortable position and took hold of my necklace. But something felt…off as I lifted myself into the air. It seemed to take just a moment longer than normal for the power to kick in. Was it simply paranoia?

I kept my gaze fixated on the ground, focusing completely on the curious flickering in energy.

"Everything all right?" Sora asked.

An instinct inside me told me that if I didn't put a hundred percent of my attention on the Starlite, I wouldn't be able to keep it in check, but I opened my big mouth anyway. "Actually, I'm not really-" I gasped when I suddenly fell from my position in the air.

Riku made a move forward with his arms held out, and I landed painfully in them with an, "Oof." My ankle rolled over, and it was all I could do to withhold a scream.

"Luna!" Ciro shouted, attempting in vain to move. He cringed, then asked, "What happened?"

"I have no clue," I choked out. "The Starlite—it just stopped working all of a sudden." He wasn't sure what to say to that. Neither would I.

"Can you try again?" Kairi suggested.

I took a breath and nodded. Again I had trouble exploiting the power that usually came naturally to me. This time, however, I also noticed that the warmth that came with using the Starlite—the warmth that ran through my veins everyday—was dim, and fading. The most I could lift myself was a few inches before it gave out completely. This was definitely not paranoia. "It's no use," I murmured dejectedly.

"Hm, well you obviously can't walk on your own," Sora said, looking deep in thought.

"Obviously," I repeated. As much as I hated it, I knew I really only had one option. "Riku, do you mind…carrying me? That is, if it's not too much trouble." My face gave away my discomfort. I had a serious thing against being manhandled. But since I couldn't walk with or without the Starlite, I'd have to put it with it for a while.

Riku smirked at me, like it was some sort of inside joke. "Déjà vu."

I stared up at him, unblinking, until I remembered: the first day on the Destiny Islands, when I'd first realized my inability to walk. He'd had to carry me then, too.

A corner of my lips pulled upwards. "Shut up," I retorted, but we both knew his answer meant 'yes', and mine meant 'thank you'.

Ciro, however, didn't get the joke, and for whatever reason got angry. But it was more of a passive kind. He shot up quickly, despite his injuries, stating, "Wait, I'm her brother; let _me_ carry her." He nearly fell back down, just like I'd done earlier, and would've if Sora hadn't saved him at the last second.

"Oh no you don't," Sora said, stringing one of Ciro's arms around his own shoulders, effectively holding him up. "You can barely stand yourself."

"But…" He trailed off.

Kairi stood to the side, covering her mouth with her hand to keep from giggling out loud.

I smiled, too, and tilted my head to the side. Something caught my eye on the ground a little further away. Against the gray of the dirt and debris, the dark black square stood out quite well. "What's that?" I pointed.

Kairi followed my vision and went to pick it up. It didn't seem like much of anything until she folded it along the crease running diagonally through it, forming a triangle of fabric. She gasped. "Is this…?"

"That's Nero's," Ciro said, voice on edge. His bandana. It occurred to me that I had never seen him without it. So…where was he now?

"Do you think he survived, too?" Sora asked. My whole body tensed at the thought.

Ciro tried to break away from Sora, shouting, "No more games! If you're there, show yourself!" at the empty horizon. As menacing as he sounded, he didn't pose much of a threat while clinging to someone else for support. But no one answered his call, nor did anything move in the wasteland. Everything was eerily still.

Nobody was sure what to think. Was he really gone? Or was he hiding, planning, waiting to strike? Both were possible, I supposed. But what good would standing around here worrying do? There were more important things, right? Like the matter of getting off this world while the Starlite wouldn't do anything.

A light bulb went off in my head. "Hold on," I exclaimed, "didn't you say Cosmus still had a piece of the, what did he call it, Novarine?" The same thing I had been using all this time, and never even knew it.

"Yeah," Riku confirmed. Everyone caught on then to what I was suggesting. It kind of felt good to be the one with an idea for once.

It took convincing my brother to forget about his anger for a second, so we could get underway. Kairi pocketed the piece of cloth for the time being and led the way back to where she and Riku had taken shelter during the disaster. Sure enough, the man in question was lying on the ground, but now he was awake. He saw us coming (I knew because his eyes narrowed), but he didn't say anything.

"You going to talk, or do we have to make you?" Ciro said when he got fed up.

"I believe that until I'm good and dead I have the right to speak when _I_ choose to," was his reply.

"Then here's your choice," Riku spoke up, "you can either tell us what we want to know now, or later. We have time, and so do you."

"You think that just because I decided to save your life I owe you some nonexistent favor?"

"Just accept that you've lost," Ciro spat out.

Silence ensued before the subject was changed. "Where is Nero?" Cosmus inquired, expressionless.

"You tell us," Sora countered. Kairi pulled out the artifact we'd recovered and showed it to him. The scientist understood.

"If you think I had something to do with this, then you're sadly mistaken. Why the fool would pull such a dangerous stunt as he did is beyond me. We're lucky he's only destroyed himself."

"You know that for a fact?" Riku said.

"…No, I don't. In the time I've known him, he has proved himself to be quite the escape artist." His eyes became distant, yet they held no remorse. No feeling of any kind. I couldn't fathom how that was possible at this point.

"Look, we're wasting time arguing about this," I said, beyond keeping quiet anymore. "The fact is we need your help, and you need ours," I burst out. I let my words sink in before adding, "But first, I want you to tell me why… why the Starlite isn't working now." He again was quiet, probably trying to decide whether he had anything to gain from responding. I waited, my eyes never leaving his. If there was anyone who could tell me what was wrong, it was him.

"The power must be fading," he finally said. "There is only a certain amount of energy available within a single piece of the Novarine, and once it's all gone, it becomes merely another worthless stone. Considering the size of the piece inside the Starlite, I imagine the power that was just unleashed took an enormous amount of that energy, and, in turn, is burning out."

My immediate reaction was to claim that he was somehow lying; _that can't be true! _Except that made perfect sense. And what _would_ he gain by using deceit? Thus came the realization; _I can't use the Starlite anymore?_

I feigned composure against the awful truth, saying, "Then we need yours."

"You've made that apparent. With no help from Nero, and my lab being destroyed, my only real option is to help you help me. But I don't want you to misunderstand; my single concern is still myself. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," I answered.

* * *

With very little trouble, we made it back to Radiant Garden. Nobody was very keen on saying anything on the trip, but that was understandable. We made sure to land close to Merlin's house, where we figured everyone else might be gathered. But only the blue-topped wizard greeted us, saying that everyone else was up at the castle for more recon. With all of our injuries in mind, we decided the best option would be to wait here for them, where we could at least be treated with magic. He told us that all it would actually affect was the pain, and that Aerith would have to take care of all the medical issues. Being that there was no official hospital as of yet, she had taken it upon herself to read up on the topic so she could become a somewhat-adept doctor. But Merlin never once asked how we had come to be in such condition. Good; I didn't want to explain it. Anyway, the five of us, along with a once again unconscious Cosmus (thanks to a sleep spell), lazed away the next few hours inside the house I'd come to know and love.

While we were all sitting in a circle talking, not all of us were contributing to the pleasant conversation. Ciro hardly ever spoke, but instead kept his gaze focused on the window, and I knew what he wanted. "A lot has changed around here," I said to him, "since then." He wouldn't answer; I doubted that he even heard me, but that was okay. We would have time to look around later, after this final matter was resolved. Somehow I got to thinking about our experience with the Restoration Committee, or lack thereof, actually. I had wanted to do something more for everyone, since they were helping me. But after we found the journal, I sort of forgot about it.

Right around sunset the others returned. They were all surprised to find us there, and even more so to see the two extra visitors. Well, except maybe Yuffie. Quick as a whip she made her rounds of hugs and hellos, as did the rest, but when she came to my brother, she paused, finger on lip. Then she snapped her fingers. "I got it—you must be Ciro! I imagined you to be a little more cheery."

"Would you be cheery after having been kidnapped and almost killed?" he said bluntly, not even bothering to look at her.

"Of course!" she replied instantaneously. "You _are_ still alive, aren't you? Isn't that something to be happy about?"

He finally broke away from his trance, completely at a loss of words towards her attitude. I knew for a fact that he'd never met anyone like her before.

"Come on, you need to lighten up, just like Leon!" she shouted.

"I heard that," the mentioned man said calmly over his shoulder. He was standing at the bedside of where we'd laid Cosmus. "Who's this?"

"He…was the one who started this whole mess," I huffed out.

"And you brought him here because…?"

"We didn't want to just leave him stranded. We thought maybe there'd be a better place for him here."

Leon went quiet momentarily. "Well, I can't make any promises, but I'll try to come up with something."

I smiled graciously at him. "Thanks."

"May I ask now what in the world happened to all of you?" Aerith interceded. She sounded exasperated, not that I could blame her. We did kind of look awful.

A long, hesitant instant, in which the only sound came from Merlin and Cid's beginnings of a quarrel, passed.

"It's another long story," Sora said.

"We'll get to that later," Kairi followed up.

"I think the biggest issue at the moment is that we all need medical attention," Riku finished.

If for nothing else, I would be eternally grateful to the three of them just for those words.

* * *

Several bandages and one long explanation later, night had fallen and everyone was growing tired. We were forbidden to leave until the morning, so we would at least have a chance to rest. We split into the same groups as before to provide everyone with a bed, although the addition of Ciro and Cosmus made things trickier. Naturally Aerith didn't mind Ciro staying with us, that wasn't the problem. But what were we supposed to do with the unconscious body of a madman? We couldn't just throw him in the floor and hope he didn't wake up. Cid eventually said he'd watch over him, which meant Sora would have to stay there, too. It didn't look like he minded, though.

The pain in my ankle had subsided enough so that I could walk by myself, slowly at least. When we had reached our host's house and Aerith said how sorry she was she didn't have a couch, or some other form of bed besides the single one used for guests, another problem arose. My stupid, stubborn brother volunteered to sleep on the floor; "It's not like I'm not used to it."

That made my heart sting a little. "And that's why you _need _some real sleep. I'm not made of glass you know. I'll be fine." I practically had to force him into the bed after half an hour of arguing didn't work (Aerith had excused herself by that point). But it was all worth it in the end when he almost immediately fell asleep. So much for his claim that he wouldn't be able to anyway.

I actually wasn't tired, so I pulled the chair from the corner of the room up to the bedside and just sat there. Everything was so quiet, but in a good way. For the first time that day I was allowed to think straight. I fingered the charm around my neck, permitting myself a moment to mourn the loss of the power. As much as I had resented it at first for getting me into this mess, it had…become a part of me. It was special. When I told the others about the recent development, the only question that was asked was, "Are you sad?" I said I wasn't sure, but that was only half-true. Going back to life without the Starlite would be difficult, to say the least, but maybe it was for the best. Besides, I had my brother back; that was what counted.

Just then I realized something very important: now things could finally go back to normal, and we could go _home_.

On that note, oddly enough, two images filled my mind at that exact moment. They were completely opposite in every way—log cabins versus beach houses, pine trees versus palm trees, lake versus ocean—but they both kindled the warm-fire feeling of home.

I frowned. All this time I had just sort of assumed that in the end, Ciro and I would return to Galaxy and continue our lives as if nothing bad had happened. It just made sense. But even if we did go back, it was painfully obvious that nothing would ever be the same again; it couldn't be. And really, when I thought hard about it, there wasn't much left for me there. Just a little bedroom and a little lake full of memories from before. And when it came right down to it, going back would be no different from pretending that this was all simply a bad dream. I would just be trying to live on the surface of a life that didn't exist anymore.

Then I thought about how happy I was on the islands with all my friends; how the sun would shine every day, even if I didn't shine with it. I loved that. I really did. But asking Ciro to go with me wouldn't be fair to him (though a selfish part of me knew that he would if I wanted him to). He deserved happiness after all this, too.

I took a breath and closed my eyes. There was really only one question left to answer:

_Where do we go from here?_

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I noticed was that the chair seemed a lot softer than I remembered. I honestly couldn't figure out why until I ran a hand across the pillow under my cheek. Then it hit me. I turned over to find Ciro sitting in the chair instead. He was awake.

"Morning," he greeted.

While he was probably expecting something of the same degree in return, the first thing out of my mouth was, "You're crazy."

"No kidding." He rubbed the back of his neck with an uncomfortable expression. "I think I _should_ have slept on the floor."

I sat up a little straighter. "How long have you been there?"

"Oh, since about five minutes after you dozed off."

I rolled my eyes. "Are you ever going to treat me like an adult?"

"I will as soon as you start acting like one. Now get up. Aerith wants you."

Yawning, I threw the mound of covers off me and got up as instructed. Before standing, however, I put one foot to the floor to test how much it would hurt. It felt more funny than painful. As soon as I stood up, the most unbelievable thing happened: Ciro actually started making the bed.

"You can't be serious. Don't you have something better to do?" I asked incredulously.

"Nope."

"Do you plan to follow me everywhere I go, too?"

He paused from pulling a sheet into place to look up at me. "I plan to make sure something like this never happens again."

That comment made me want to scream. "It _won't_. Cosmus can't hurt us anymore, and the Starlite is gone," I tried emphasizing.

"But what about Nero? He could still be out there," Ciro shot back harshly. His grip on the bed sheets tightened considerably.

"I don't know, okay? But I'm not going to sit around and worry myself to death about it. I just want to move on!"

Ciro's anger persisted a moment longer before it gave out and his head fell. "I'm sorry. I just feel so responsible," he whispered.

"That's the problem; it's not your fault. You couldn't have done anything more than you did, so please, just let it go." He almost repeated the apology, but I cut him off. "And if I hear you say 'sorry' again, I'll slap you." I broke into a toothy grin at the confusion on his face. I started towards the door and added over my shoulder, "You know, you should spend some more time with Yuffie. She'd be a good influence on you."

I found Aerith in the kitchen, dressed in her usual pink attire, pouring a green liquid into a cup. She heard my footsteps and turned. "Good morning, sweetie. Are you feeling any better?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks again for your help. So, um…you needed me?"

"Hm? Oh, actually it was Leon that wanted to talk to you. He's at Merlin's right now if you want to go."

"Okay."

"Am I allowed to come?" Ciro called from behind us. He sauntered in, appearing to have forgotten our barely two-minute-old spat. But I knew he never forgot.

"As long as you're on your best behavior," I replied firmly.

"I'll do my best."

I smiled and turned back to Aerith. "What about you?"

"I'll be along later. I have a few things to do around here first." She took a sip from her cup.

With that decided, Ciro and I set out on a rather silent journey towards Merlin's. Every now and then I would attempt to ask a question, but they all hit awkward, dead ends. More than that, it was like he was purposely keeping a yard of space between us. I sighed inwardly. This must have been his definition of 'best behavior'. There had to be some sort of middle ground between overprotecting and completely ignoring me, because neither worked well. I made a mental note to bring that up later.

When we finally reached our destination, I didn't even get a chance to knock before the door swung open to reveal a particularly excited Yuffie. Her black hair bobbed up and down as she spoke. "Hey, guys! Did you oversleep? We've all been waiting for you. Well don't just stand there; come on in!" She leaned forward and grabbed each of our wrists, jerking us inside after her. When she let go I was propelled forward a few more feet, nearly toppling over as I came to a stop in the center of the room.

I groaned at the new pain in my abused limb. "Ugh. Who gave Yuffie the caffeine?"

Kairi, who was sitting by the window, along with the rest of the trio, giggled. "Talk to Sora. He's the one that's been here all night." The brunette in question denied having anything to do with the crime.

"Hey, kid," Cid called. When I looked, he and Leon were motioning for me to come closer.

"What's up?" I asked. They both stepped aside to expose Cosmus, handcuffed to a bedpost. He was once again awake, but his face was downcast. I paused out of surprise, then warily continued towards them.

"He woke up in the middle of the night and been talking gibberish ever since," Cid said, adjusting the toothpick in his mouth.

"And he keeps mentioning someone named Nero. Any idea what that's about?" Leon questioned.

Ciro took the liberty of answering for me, striding up beside me. "Nero's just his lackey," he said nastily.

"But we think he's dead now," I added quickly.

Leon nodded in understanding. "We searched him and found some things you might want." Cid pulled out two objects: a fluorescent orange rock, and a leather-bound book._ Project: Starlite _was inscribed on the front of the latter. It was my parents' journal—I had forgotten all about it. And the other was the Novarine. I expected Cosmus to say something then, but he remained quiet and motionless.

"T- thank you," I stammered. I took the items from them, unsure of what to do next.

"We figured you'd want to put those somewhere safe," Cid explained.

Ciro put a hand on my shoulder. "We'll do that," he assured.

"One other thing; you said this was the guy that killed your parents? Are you sure about that?" Leon asked sternly.

Cosmus's head suddenly sliced upwards. "Their deaths were purely accidental. I never in my life would hurt them intentionally," he shouted angrily. The rest of the room went still.

"And yet it still happened, didn't it?" Ciro shot back spitefully.

The two older men both agreed with my brother. "We take murder very seriously around here," Leon told him. To us he said, "We decided the best place for him was prison, though we thought we should tell you first."

The grip on my shoulder tightened, and I knew what Ciro wanted to say. I cut him off with, "That sounds perfect." Ciro was still ready to take revenge against the man who had done so much wrong to us. But what he didn't understand was that more death would solve nothing. I wouldn't let him become a killer over this.

"All right. We can take him now. Is there anything else you want to say?"

"Actually… yes, there is," I spoke up. I stepped away from Ciro's grasp and stood on shaky legs before Cosmus. It was frightening, really, to be this close to him, unarmed, defenses down, but I needed to say this. Because I refused to end this with feelings of malice. I meant what I said about moving on, and this would be my first step towards closure. I took a breath, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "I know you miss them, and I know you didn't want things to happen this way, so I just want you to know…I forgive you." Because one couldn't forget until they had first forgiven.

The way his eyes widened ever so slightly was enough to make everything seem okay in the world, for just a moment. Though coupled with shock and guilt, they seemed to say _thank you_.

Maybe I was imagining things, and maybe I would come to regret that statement, but I made myself promise then to never forget how I felt while I said it. The light-as-air happiness that filled my entire body lasted until Cid unlocked the chain around the bedpost, relocked it around his prisoner's other wrist, and led him out of the house.

_That's it, then. It's all over. _I'd been thinking that since the day before, but it was most true right now. I somehow even managed to feel sorry for the man that had worked so hard to pursue his dreams. What a fleeting notion that was.

"Luna," Riku said, requesting my attention. I turned to him and the others. "Don't you think it's about time we go back home?"

My debate from the night before hit me smack in the face, throwing me off guard. It took a second to collect myself and respond. "Oh. Right." I never did figure out what I would do about that. But…it looked like my next stop would be Destiny Islands. I did have the Novarine, after all, and while it wasn't exactly the same as using the Starlite, I had the most experience. "Yeah, let's go."

"Where are we going?" Ciro inquired, as expected.

"I've got to take Sora, Riku, and Kairi to their home. I mean, _our _home. Or, well…" I had no idea how to explain this.

I received a funny look from my brother. "Okay. Do I need to come?"

I bit my lower lip nervously. I really should have prepared for this a little better. "Well, it's just that I've been living with Kairi on their island, and…I like it there. And I'd like it better if you were there, too." I recognized when he caught on to what I was saying, and feared what his reaction might be. So I panicked. "But I don't want to make you if you don't want to!" All the thoughts than had been running through my head must have transferred into him, because his face went all but blank. _Just get to the point already! _"I guess what I'm asking is…what do you want to do?"

"…To be honest, I don't really know. I've been so focused on keeping you safe, I forgot about my own wishes."

"It's okay to be uncertain," Sora said. "But the Islands are always open to anyone who needs somewhere to stay."

A half-smile crossed Ciro's features. "By the way, I've been meaning to thank you for taking care of Luna all this time."

"I think you mean 'putting up' with her," Riku corrected.

"Hey!" I yelled in defense, but it was funny just the same.

We all laughed for the next couple minutes, until Ciro led us back on topic. "To answer your question, though, Luna, if this is important to you-"

No more laughing. "Please don't finish that sentence," I pleaded. "I would hate myself if I knew you were only doing this for me. Isn't there a solution that works best for everyone?"

"Rarely is that the case," Leon answered, even though he wasn't technically part of the conversation. "Sometimes you just have to work with what you have."

This gave Yuffie permission enough to join, too. "I have something to say!"

I couldn't help thinking, _don't you always?_

But her next action surprised all of us, especially Ciro. He cried out as she suddenly, and quite literally, jumped on top of him from behind. "You can't leave yet! You haven't even seen the city! Your sister got an official tour, and so should you!" she squealed with laughter. He muttered something about getting off of him, but the plea was lost on the hyperactive girl. He forcefully had to remove her arms from around his neck just to breathe.

The expression on Ciro's face when he looked at me for help was priceless. What made it even better was knowing that he wouldn't be able to say no. And just like that, she was dragging him out the door, ignoring his protests to stop. He couldn't have known how useless that was, unlike the rest of us who watched on in amusement.

I chuckled to myself. "Guess I have no choice but to come back for him later." Did I have a problem with that? Not really. I never had problem with postponing issues, even if it _was_ a bad habit.

Not much was said after that; there was no need for talk. We all got ready to leave and did so fairly quickly. I had to fiddle with the Novarine for a minute until I was confident I could control it well enough for my purposes. In a way, it actually seemed easier to use than the Starlite, like it was less hindered. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or scared because of that. Probably both.

* * *

The Islands were a lot warmer than I remembered. I felt the change in temperature as soon as we broke into the atmosphere. It wasn't a sticky, humid hot, though; it was what I'd have to describe as perfect weather, and it was amazing to bask in the sun again.

Kairi said she wanted to land out on the islet, so that's what we did. Luckily no one was around to see the quartet of people come floating down from the sky. I didn't know why that was so important to me here—everywhere else we'd gone I'd blown my cover without thinking twice. I thought about how scared I'd been when I'd first woken up on this very shore. I was so concerned with keeping the Starlite one big, frightening, embarrassing secret, and the three that rescued me had done nothing but help. I still believed it was my destiny to have met Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

Sora yawned, stretching his arms above his spiky head. "It's good to be back," he said, and plopped down on his back in the sand.

Kairi giggled and I rolled my eyes. "So how long you think Yuffie's going to hold Ciro captive?"

"That's assuming she's going to let him go at all," I answered, smiling.

"By the way," Riku began, "I noticed how eager you were to avoid that conversation."

I considered pretending I didn't know what he was talking about. Instead I shrugged, not looking him in the eye. "I just didn't think there was any point to stressing until I absolutely needed to." Even I could hear how fake I sounded.

"Hey," he said, and I had no choice but to meet his gaze. "We understand if you want to go back to Galaxy."

Sora sat up. "Yeah. It's where you grew up, right?"

I nodded halfheartedly. "But I just feel like going back would only make me sad. Ciro, too. He probably never really liked it there to begin with; not like I did." That was what I'd come to realize, when Ciro had revealed the truth about being forced to live on Galaxy. It wasn't like we'd had any other choice at the time.

"Then just stay here," Kairi said. "You're already living with me, but maybe we could find you and your brother a house of your own."

I loved the idea, but… "I couldn't do that to him. He's already sacrificed so much for me."

"Maybe he'd like it here."

A scoff accidentally escaped my mouth. "Yeah, out here at the beach? He's not much of a nature person." It was true. Unlike me, he'd spend most of his time reading or cleaning, but that was just because it needed to be done. I couldn't bear to leave him alone all day now, while I was out goofing off with my friends. Nor could I force myself to sit by his side all day and do nothing—I'd go insane! Neither of us could possibly live like that. "Then what _can _we do?" I murmured. No one answered.

Maybe we should've stayed in Radiant Garden for a while longer. At least there I'd have something to do while I tried to come to a decision about what really _should _have been a simple question. The idea of being able to help the Committee with their big plan made me feel like I could have more purpose in life. Other than sitting around whining, or worse, doing absolutely nothing. If I couldn't do anything about my own 'home' situation, I could at least do something about theirs.

I was about to suggest this when it suddenly hit me like a huge rock, and the longer I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense. A big smile spread across my face in response to the most wonderful, perfect thought I'd ever had, but the one growing in my heart was twice as big.

"You okay there?" Sora asked amusedly.

"She must've thought of something. I've never seen you look this happy," Riku commented.

"I don't think I've ever _been _this happy."

"Should I ask?"

I shut my eyes. "I feel so stupid for not thinking of this before." For a brief second I wondered how my friends would react to my next bit of news, but that doubt was extinguished by the knowledge that _because _they were my friends, they'd support me. They wanted what was best for me. And I was confident this was the best thing I could possibly do. "Guys, I just figured out what I want to do with my life." Pause. "I've…never done anything significant until I went on this journey, and that's helped me realize that it's time I gave something back. I want to do that in Radiant Garden. They could use my help."

"That's a great idea, Luna," Sora affirmed.

"Won't you need to ask your brother?" Riku said.

"I'm positive Ciro's going to love it." In a burst of optimism I asked, "Kairi, do you still have that bandana?"

"Hm? I think so." She went rummaging through her bag and pulled it out. I took it from her. Just holding it seemed to melt all the joy inside me.

The small square of fabric was thin and dark and practically transparent unless you folded it over. Everyone remained quiet as I took a few steps closer to the shoreline. I stood there for as much as five minutes, clutching the cloth with enough force to strangle the life out of it, had it had any. I pictured Nero, with his cruel looks and acidic voice, and I understood then how Ciro could hate someone enough to want to kill them. That terrified me. It didn't help that the island breeze had picked up, blowing past me, through me, sending a chill down my body.

"You," I whispered so that only I could hear myself. "You were the pen that wrote the worst chapter in my life. I have every reason to despise you, every reason to find you, if you're still out there. But you know what? I'm not going to give you the satisfaction. I'm through with you."

On the next gust of wind, I let go of the tangible reminder of these last few weeks, and watched it fly away. It rose and swooped with the current and landed in the water a good distance away. In a way, it was a small victory over Nero, stating that I wouldn't let his presence rule my life any longer, nor would I let myself be used ever again. But I didn't allow my pride to show, and when I finally turned back to my friends, I was smiling and laughing and pretending that we wouldn't have to say goodbye soon. But so was everyone else. We did everything but think about that, and with every joke made another hour seemed to pass until the sun was directly before us, sinking into the sea in a glorious display of color. It was time to go.

I had refused to cry up to that point, but when we started with the farewells I couldn't contain the sadness. We hugged and we cried (well, Kairi and I did), and when I was just about ready to take off I said, "Tell Selphie hey for me."

Sora nodded, saying, "Will do."

"Oh! That reminds me!" Kairi exclaimed. She once again went through her bag and carefully tugged out a colorful sheet of paper. "I got this printed out forever ago and made an extra, just in case." I stared at the picture with amazement. It was that day we had taken the group shot here on the island. All of us, along with Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka stared back at me with happy faces and silly poses. I choked out a half-sob-half-laugh and told Kairi thank you, that I wished I had something for them in return. We all gathered for one last group hug and then I left, waving down at the people that already looked like specks, and looking forward to the time I saw them again.

* * *

When I arrived back in Radiant Garden, there were still clusters of people out walking around everywhere, making it difficult to find a clear spot for landing. It wasn't until I was on the ground that I thought about where I'd even _find _Ciro. They could've been anywhere, and with all these people…I really should've looked while I was up in the air. I looked from side to side, considering doing just that when, "Luna!" rang out above the general noise of the masses moving though the streets.

I turned at the sound of my name and through the crowd saw two familiar bobs of black hair. The female of this duo was skipping happily along with her usual cheerful demeanor, but the extra enthusiasm seemed to have finally worn off. She was laughing at something the latter was saying. I had to do a double-take when I realized it was Ciro, and he was _laughing_. For anyone else that might have been normal, but not Ciro. The grin was so out of place on his normally somber face, and yet it wasn't. He looked genuinely happy, a feat I had rarely witnessed. Growing up, he'd resorted to fake happiness a lot of the time for my sake, not that I'd realized that until I was older. But getting a real smile out of him was hard, even for me.

We met up off to the side of the road, so as not to stand in the way of the passersby. "Hey, you're back," he greeted, still in very good spirits from what I could tell.

"Sorry if I took a long time. I…got caught up with stuff." I was anxious to tell him about my idea, but I wanted to bring it up gradually, gently.

"Honestly, I hadn't even realized it's gotten this late. We must have covered the entire city," he admitted abashedly.

"Not all of it," Yuffie remarked. "There's still the outer regions and the castle. Remember? You said you always wondered what it was like when you were a kid."

"That's right. Then you said you had to be escorted by a Committee member."

"Which is why you're lucky you have me!" the ninja proclaimed proudly. The two laughed some more. I simply stood there and watched as if I were in a dream.

"By the way, Luna, I have something I want to talk to you about," Ciro said when he calmed down enough to speak.

I shook off the astonishment. "M-me too. But you can go first."

He nodded, and took a breath. "Look, I was thinking, and I don't know how you're going to feel about this, but…I'd like to spend some more time here. I know you were probably looking to go back home now that this is all behind us, and, it's like you said, I don't want to make you, but that got me thinking—with Yuffie showing me around, I learned that I've really missed this place. I guess I'm new to this whole self-fulfillment thing, but what do you say?"

By the time he finished, I was practically staring agape at him. Yuffie looked pleased but managed to refrain from commenting until after I answered. "Uh, y-yeah, sure, that'd be fine," was all I could manage.

"Really? Are you sure?" he pressed, plainly thrilled.

I swallowed the remaining surprise, letting my joy rise to the surface to take its place. "Absolutely. I'd like that."

Yuffie fist-pumped. "All right! Come on, let's go tell the others you guys are going to be here for an extended visit!" She grabbed his hand in hers and went to lead him away, but he made her stop for one more second.

"Thank you for saying yes. It means a lot to me. And maybe sometime in the future, we'll decide to stay here. We can start completely over."

I smiled even wider. _Took the words right out of my mouth._

"Now, didn't you have something to say, too?"

"What? Oh. I…I just wanted you to know how glad I am you're back." It was hardly a lie—maybe that's why he believed it. Things couldn't have worked out any more perfect, even if I had wished it. Yuffie tugged him away then, but he didn't put up any protest this time. I remained still, discarding the notion that this was a dream. It was so much better than that; it was _real_.

I absentmindedly found myself reaching for the Starlite, and even without the supernatural warmth of power flowing through my body, I felt complete. I wondered, though, if I'd ever again be able to use it. I looked down at the fragment of Novarine still in my hand. My parents had wanted Ciro and I to continue _Project: Starlite_, even if they were gone. Perhaps we could do that. After all, we had the journal, and how hard could it be to follow their instructions? But my first duty was to my hometown.

"Luna, let's go!" Ciro called from across the street, breaking into my thoughts. The mass of people was thinner now, most heading back to their own homes.

"I'm coming!" I yelled back.

Right. I wouldn't do it today, but tomorrow I'd ask to become a part of the Restoration Committee. Then, someday, I'd fix the Starlite, I decided. I took in the crisp evening air and started towards them. I thought about Ciro's words: starting over. I liked the sound of that. It made the future seem bright.

_My_ future. And it begins now.

* * *

I worked really hard to give y'all an extra-_extra_-long chapter/ending, so if you didn't like it, do me a favor and don't tell me. It would make me sad :(

…

I'm totally kidding. If you actually didn't like it, or disliked something about it, feel free to say so. I am finally done with this story, and nothing can bring me down 8D MWAHAHAHAHA.

…Maniacal laughter aside, I truly am glad to at long last be finished. This took a _lot_ longer than I thought it would.

Now then, I would like to take the time to publicly express my gratitude towards a few people.

First off, you _all_ have a certain miss **black maple tree **(sorry, it wouldn't let me put your actual pen name) to thank for getting me to start this, and then taking the time to help me. You have no idea how true it is when I say this never would have been possible without her help. So, for the bajillionth-and-one time, thank you.

Second, special shout out to **emmausgirl94** and **turbotalker** for all their help behind the scenes. You guys drive me insane, but I love you :D

And last, but not least, to everyone who stuck with me this long, I adore you. Legit. To those who read, favorited, alerted, reviewed, or simply clicked on this story, you make all those sleepless nights worth it :)

Again, kidding. You _wish_ I spent an entire night working on this. *coughcough* But you get the idea.

But seriously. While I love this story with all my heart, it's time to lay Cosmic Hearts to rest once and for all.

Chapter Thirty-Two complete. Please review, and I hope to see you all again in the future. Thank you for reading :)


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